


Time Clash

by xXdreameaterXx



Series: Alternative Season 10 [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen, alternative S10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-21
Packaged: 2018-10-29 02:11:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 24,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10844331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xXdreameaterXx/pseuds/xXdreameaterXx
Summary: With Jack the Ripper on the loose in the streets of modern London and more and more historical figures emerging from out of nowhere, the Doctor has to accept the help of a young girl named Ruby to prevent the world from sinking into chaos. Yet when he is faced with a temptation almost too great to resist it is up to Ruby to prove her worth. Set immediately after Hell Bent. Alternative S10. Part 1/12.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This alternative season 10 is a collaboration that has been in the works for about two years now and I am so excited to finally work properly on this one. My friend and I have split the 12 "episodes" of this season and we will write our respective parts. However, our companion Ruby is someone we came up with together long before Pearl was announced while we were listing all the things we would want for the new addition to the TARDIS and we ended up loving her so much that we thought it would be a waste not to write about her. Some of the plots, including this first "episode", were drafted even before season 9 aired, so it's been a very long process and I'm really, really excited to finally share it with you. I hope you will enjoy the adventures of the Twelfth Doctor and Ruby :)

“It was completely unjustified!” Ruby yelled at her flatmate in defence, who only eyed her with suspicion from her spot on the couch as Ruby continued to pace the carpet in front of her. As if her day hadn't been bad enough, now Sarah was dead set on giving her a hard time as well when she could really do with some kind of support.  
“Unjustified or not - how are you gonna pay the rent without a job, sweetheart?” her friend wanted to know, “If you can't pay the rent, I'll have to find someone else for your room. You know very well I can't do it on my own.”  
“Sarah,” she tried to argue, but looking at her friend she was only met with raised eyebrows. It was no use, simply no use at all.  
“Fine,” Ruby spat in anger, “Good luck finding someone who is willing to put up with you and this lousy apartment!”  
Without further announcement Ruby rushed into her own room and slammed the door shut. It wasn't her first time losing a job, but the first time losing a job she had truly cared about, and now her so called friend only continued to make her feel bad about it. Yes, maybe she had overreacted, maybe she shouldn't have pushed her colleague into the polar bear cage, but the way he had been treating the animals had bugged her for a long time. That guy simply had had it coming. Luckily nothing bad had happened to him, except for a few scratches and a pair of underpants in need of changing. Still her boss had found it was enough of a reason for her immediate dismissal. Once more Ruby found herself out of of a job and, as it seemed, out of luck as well. She needed to do something about that.  
Angrily Ruby grabbed the first bag that she could find, stuffed a couple of her clothes inside and put her purse on top of them before zipping the bag shut. Running away seemed as good a solution as any since her flatmate wanted to get rid of her anyway. Ruby was determined to leave before she got kicked out. One defeat was more than enough for a day.  
“Hey, what are you doing?!”  
“I'm leaving,” Ruby said simply and marched past her friend. She didn't know where she was going to go, only that she needed to get out of here. A fire was raging inside her, moving her legs before Ruby's brain even had the chance to keep up. It was the same fire that had made her leave her home three years ago and so far she hadn't regretted that impulse. Ruby seemed confident she wouldn't regret this move either.   
“Where will you stay?” Sarah asked her, her voice now more worried than angry or reproachful.  
“I'll find something,” she replied, her hand already on the door handle, “I'll pick up the rest later.”

The autumn air was cool around her nose and Ruby took a deep breath, instantly feeling a lot calmer than she had just a minute ago. Yes, it was time for another change, another move, Ruby could feel it in her restless bones. She just wasn't made for this sort of life, she wasn't made to sit still in the same place, working the same job for months on end. No, that wasn't her.   
Edinburgh was supposed to be nice. Maybe she would go there next. Or Dublin. Or somewhere on the continent. Or Asia. Ruby vaguely remembered reading something about an organisation in need of volunteers to save the Red Pandas. Maybe she should join them? But first she needed a place to crash, at least for one night until she had made up her mind. She could ask Benny. No, she had had a fight with him last week and ended their relationship and he was probably asleep already. He wouldn't appreciate her call. Loreena? Yes, Loreena was a safe bet.   
Ruby turned around the right corner, pulling her jacket a little tighter around her body to shield herself against the drizzle and walked through the dark streets, rarely ever passing someone else. This part of London was too quiet for Ruby's taste anyway, she needed something more _alive_ and _buzzing_. She needed a new adventure. 

_“Hey, lassie!”_   
Ruby turned around when she heard the deep, gravelly voice and instantly found the source of it. There was no one around but herself and the grey haired stranger leaning against an old police box. The man wore an odd expression on his face that made the lines on his forehead appear deeper than they probably were.  
“What?” she asked back, giving a slight shrug. He was a Scotsman. Maybe she could ask him if Edinburgh was as nice as they all said.  
“Do you know what time it is?” the man wanted to know, granting her a short, light smile. He seemed almost nice with that hint of a smile, despite his rather stark appearance and the strict looking velvet coat and crisp white shirt.  
Ruby pushed the sleeve of her jacket up to glance at her watch, only to realize that the arms were going haywire around the face. It must have run low on batteries. She looked back up at the stranger.  
“Sorry, my watch's going crazy. Probably the batteries.”  
Ruby turned back around and had already resumed walking when she heard the stranger mutter “Yeah. Probably,” in a mysterious, no, thoughtful tone.   
She decided to shrug off the odd encounter even though the way he spoke and dressed made the little hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Something about him just rubbed her the wrong way and yet she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Was it the velvet coat? The strange tone in his voice? That messy bunch of hair on his head that seemed not quite of this world? There was something that she was missing, something absolutely not right at all. Then she suddenly stopped.  
“That police box wasn't there yester-,” Ruby said in turning, but once her eyes were back on the blue box, the stranger was gone and the street was utterly deserted. She couldn't even hear footsteps from any direction in which he might have gone.   
She couldn't quite say what drove her to walk back to the police box, but a few moments later Ruby found herself circling it in curiosity. It was a police box, just an old, fairly boring police box, though it seemed to be in an immaculate condition for something so old. Ruby had seen a few of those in her life, but she had never actually taken the time to view one from up close. It was made out of wood, painted blue, and had clean stained glass windows on all four sides. Whoever had put it here, they must have taken good care of it before dumping it here.  
And it definitely hadn't been there the day before because when Ruby looked down there was a flyer stuck halfway underneath it that still looked quite new. Ruby bent down to pull it free and under the flickering light of the street lamp she found that it was almost completely dry as if the police box had been put up before it had started to rain a couple of hours ago. But that couldn't be. These things weren't in use anymore and Ruby couldn't think of any reason someone might set up a new one. Was it a prank?   
Crumbling the flyer in her hand and throwing it into the nearest bin, she walked away, determined to leave the strange box behind. She felt a little annoyed that the street lights continued to flicker around her as she continued her path, but decided that she wouldn't care. Loreena's place, that was where she should be headed, not in circles around another curiosity of London. As for the man, judging by his weird outfit, he was probably an actor from the small theatre nearby out for a smoking break. Yes, that was probably it. Nothing wrong. Nothing mysterious. Just good, old, crazy London. But how did that police box get there?

Her thoughts about the strange box were abruptly cut short when Ruby turned around a corner and had to clap her hand over her own mouth to refrain from screaming out in horror as her eyes fell on the figure in front of her, crouched over a young woman's body. It took her a long moment, too long, to realize what was happening and by the time Ruby had noticed the blood on the street it was already too late and the man, in return, had noticed her as well. The scalpel slid from his hand as he rose up to tower over her. In horror she noticed the frock coat and top hat and all of a sudden the blood seemed to freeze in her veins as she was beginning to understand what was happening.  
Ruby swallowed hard and her eyes fell back on the red haired woman lying lifelessly on the ground. Between the instinct to run and her natural curiosity she couldn't help but think that the whole incident seemed strangely familiar while the man slowly stepped closer. He was only a terrifyingly short distance away from her when the sense of danger kicked back in.  
She laughed nervously at him. “Jack the Ripper, right?” she asked breathlessly, taking a step back when she realized just what this situation had reminded her of, “You must be an actor, too, rehearsing a play? Right? Just tell me I'm right.”  
He was now no more than an arm's length away from her and Ruby knew that she should run, find help, scream, anything, but something held her back. Her feet were glued to the spot. Even though he was menacingly close and it looked like he had indeed murdered the woman, she refused to believe that the man in the top hat was actually Jack the Ripper from the history books. There had to be an explanation. Hopefully a harmless one that would make her laugh about the fright he had given her in a few days.  
“No one,” the man said, threatening her with the tone in his voice alone while his hand reached into the pocket of his jacket, “Has ever caught me before.”  
“I won't tell if you don't,” Ruby said and she didn't wait around to see what he was pulling out of his pocket when she broke out into a run, turning back to where she had come from, fleeing in the direction of the strange police box. If that man from earlier wasn't an actor, maybe he was with the police and he could help her – she just needed to find him again.  
Ruby didn't even know if Jack the Ripper (it seemed ridiculous to call him that even in her head) was following her or not but she kept running at full speed until her lungs were beginning to sting. She was too afraid to turn around and she couldn't hear his footsteps over the sound of blood rushing through her ears, there was no way of telling whether she had managed to give him the slip. The muscles in her legs were burning and she was panting mercilessly by the the time she had reached the very last corner that separated her from the spot where she had seen the police box. Just one more corner. Then Ruby suddenly felt her body collide with something or someone.


	2. Chapter 2

“I'm sorry,” she panted and once she looked up Ruby recognized the stranger from earlier. Velvet coat. Grey, messy hair. Definitely him. “You need to help me, please. There. . . there was. . .”  
Her breathing was so fast that she struggled to get the words out and she made a mental note to go running more often in the future. She really wasn't in shape for that kind of exercise, but does one really expect to run away from Jack the Ripper in modern day London on an ordinary night like this? No, that's not the kind of thing Ruby had ever expected to happen. Not on any night of her life.  
“Calm down,” the stranger said in a low voice. His hands held a tight grip around her upper arms while she suddenly struggled to keep herself up with her burning legs. “Tell me what happened.”  
“Are you with the police?” Ruby swallowed and took another deep breath, looking at him expectantly. His face was nothing but a frown while he pursed his lips.  
“Well, that depends. What seems to be the problem?”  
Ruby was so agitated she didn't even think twice about his answer. That man, whether he was Jack the Ripper or not, was still out there and he might come after her now. Unless he was an actor. In that case he was probably laughing his butt off right now. But that didn't explain all the blood. Ruby had never seen so much blood in her entire life.  
“I think I've just witnessed a murder. A woman,” she pointed in the direction of where she had seen them, still panting a little, “And a man who looked like. . .”  
Not quite sure whether she should actually say it, Ruby decided to pause and wait for the man's reaction, but he just made an expectant gesture.  
“Like what?”  
“Like Jack the Ripper,” Ruby finally admitted, “Big guy, dark coat, top hat, . . . scalpel.”  
The expression on his face wasn't quite one of surprise or amusement or any other emotion Ruby might have expected. Instead he looked intrigued, curious even. At least he didn't seem to think she had lost it.  
“Oh, in that case I _am_ with the police. Show me where you've seen them,” he said excitedly and started to walk towards the corner and again the way he was behaving sparked her sixth sense that already seemed to be on high alert tonight after everything that had happened. There was just something odd about that man that she simply couldn't ignore, and that was after she had already met Jack the Ripper.  
“Hang on,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. She wouldn't move until she had an answer. “Are you _really_ with the police? You don't look it.”  
The man rolled his eyes in annoyance as he reached into the inside pocket of his velvet coat and produced a small leather bound identification card. When Ruby looked at it she spotted an official stamp from Scotland Yard. Upon viewing it more closely, however, the letters seemed to vanish in front of her eyes and some of what it said didn't even make sense at all. His code name was The Doctor, his signature nothing but a weird doodle, but before she could figure out the rest he had snatched it away from her.  
“There, now show me where you found them,” he ordered her and for the moment Ruby decided to believe him. Somehow she felt safe with him, well, safer than with Jack the Ripper. 

They had been walking in silence for about a minute before the man, the Doctor, cleared his throat next to her. There was small talk to come, Ruby could tell, and he was clearly awkward at that.  
“So, erm, what's your name?” he asked her and when she looked at him he seemed to be a little uncomfortable.   
“Are you sure don't want to ask about the weather instead?” she snorted, “I'm Ruby. Ruby Smith. And you're really bad at small talk.”  
“Well, I usually have someone with me who does the small talk so I don't have to.”  
“Where are they now?” Ruby asked, looking up at him. He was quite tall and maybe he was a police man after all. He surely had the stride for it.  
Suddenly the Doctor smiled down at her, but he seemed sad at the same time, almost nostalgic. “I don't know,” he scoffed, “I've been looking for her. And then I got distracted.”  
“The distraction will continue cause we're. . . here,” Ruby said as they turned around the last corner and she stopped dead in her tracks. It was definitely the right street, but there was no sign of Jack the Ripper or the woman he had killed. For a moment she thought it might really have been nothing but an act, but then she remembered the blood – and the streets were clean. Not a single trace left.  
“They _were_ here,” Ruby insisted, “I _saw_ them. He must have cleaned the street, the rain couldn't have done it all by itself.”  
“Oh, I believe you,” the Doctor said and whipped out a strange device from the pocket of his coat. If Ruby had been asked to name it, she would have called it a magic wand / slightly pointless torch. It emitted a dark, blueish glow, too dark to be of any practical use as a torch, and it gave off a strange whirring noise. Ruby had never heard anything like it before.  
However, the Doctor didn't appear to find it impractical at all as he went down on his knees and held the device over the exact spot where she had seen the woman. Maybe the device was a high-tech scanner of some sort? Or black light that wasn't black?  
“Was it here?” he asked her, pointing to the ground with his torch.  
“Yes,” Ruby confirmed, “That's the exact spot. What is that thing?”  
“Uhm,” he looked at her, appearing slightly puzzled, “It's a tool. And it's very helpful. You are right, they were here. There's a lot of temporal energy in the air, so this is where they must have materialized.”  
“Temporal what?”

The Doctor didn't have the opportunity to answer her when the street lamps started to flicker and whirr like they had done earlier when she had been walking away from the police box. The man rose to his feet and took a few steps back, coming to a halt next to Ruby and looking around in confusion. The tool in his hands was blinking quickly and it didn't sound like it was functioning as it should.  
“What's happening?” Ruby asked him warily, “Why's it doing that?”  
“Uuuuuhm,” the man paused. There was an expression on his face that didn't bode well at all. He was confused. Confusion wasn't good, not when Ruby needed him to protect her in case the murderer came back. “Temporal energy. Lots and lots of temporal energy and it seems like whatever is causing it is draining the power from the entire city. Look!”  
The Doctor pointed at one of the sky scrapers that could be seen from the distance and Ruby realized that not only the street lamps were flickering, but every light in the city, even the illuminated offices. But then something else caught her attention and instinctively she grabbed the Doctor's arm, desperate to gain his attention while she screamed.   
The body of the woman had reappeared in front of their feet and so had the blood in which her shoes were now drenched. She jumped back immediately right before the whole spectacle vanished from her eyes again.  
“What is going on here?!” Ruby demanded to know, shouting at the strange Doctor. He knew more than she did, probably more than he said as well and it was time for her to get a few answers. She would just stand here and glare at him until he had given her some.  
Even though the Doctor had already opened his mouth to reply he once again had no opportunity to speak when the screeching of tires made them shoot around and Ruby spotted two large, black cars with tinted windows coming to a halt right in front of them. In a matter of seconds several soldiers with cocked guns had emerged from the first car and were pointing their weapons at them. In an instinct she raised her hands as high as she could to show that she was unarmed and it was at that moment that Ruby realized her day probably couldn't get any stranger.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you both so much for the comments!!!! *hugs your really tight*

“Thank God you are here,” a female voice said from behind a second car right before Ruby could see a woman approach them. She was middle aged, blonde and dressed in a suit that immediately told Ruby she was in the presence of an authority figure, but nevertheless the presence of a woman in the middle of this nightmare made her feel a little calmer.  
“I should have known we would find you where the trouble is,” the woman said towards the Doctor and smiled. From the look on her face Ruby could tell that they obviously knew each other and her suspicion was confirmed when she saw that the Doctor hadn't even bothered to make even the slightest surrendering gesture towards the soldiers.  
Instead he only shrugged. “I've been investigating while you guys were still sipping your tea or whatever it is you humans do in your spare time,” he said and turned towards Ruby, “You can probably lower your hands now. These guys are soldiers. If they want to shoot you, that won't keep them from it.”  
Slowly Ruby did as he had told her, but at the same time remembered something he had said towards the woman. _Whatever you humans do._ The way he had said it made it sound like he wasn't human at all. He really was a very, very strange man.  
“What is going on here?” Ruby asked and looked from the Doctor to the blonde woman in front of her, hoping that one of them would care to enlighten her.  
“Yes, that's a good question,” the Doctor agreed and he sounded a little surprised, as if he felt he should have come up with the question first, “What was your name again?”  
“Ruby,” she repeated angrily.  
The Doctor turned to face the woman in front of them. “Answer Ruby's question,” he told her.  
The woman sighed and glanced back at Ruby, hesitating for a moment before she spoke. “I'm Kate Lethbridge-Stewart from the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, UNIT for short. We were investigating shifts in temporal energy all over the city that always seem to be connected to power cuts. We've been experiencing them for a couple of days now. Also, we noticed that the clocks and watches all seem to go crazy around the same time.”  
“That's what happened with _my_ watch!” Ruby blurted out and pulled up the sleeve of her jacket. Looking at it now, it all seemed to be back to normal and the time it showed was about right. She frowned. “Weird. It's working now.”  
The Doctor let out a groan as if the entire conversation was beginning to bore him and he began shuffling his feet uncomfortably.  
“I'm afraid we might also have an idea what is causing it, or rather who,” Kate Lethbridge-Stewart admitted ruefully.  
He snorted. “Then why bother me? Fix it. You're a big girl, Kate, go and make Daddy proud.”  
“I wish it was that easy,” she replied wearily, “It's not only a problem affecting the entire city, it's also an internal crisis. Why don't you come back to the headquarters with us and we will show you.”  
The Doctor gave a shrug. “Sure, if you give us a lift. Come on, uhm,” he stopped, looking at Ruby and for a moment he seemed a little embarrassed.  
“Ruby!” she reminded him harshly, crossing her arms in front of her chest. She wasn't sure if he was mad or if he just had a very short attention span. Okay, he was most certainly mad. The goldfish memory just seemed like a natural consequence of that.  
“Ah, yes, Ruby, come on! Time to figure out what this is all about,” the Doctor said enthusiastically and waved at her to follow him.  
Still Ruby remained uncertain. To get into a car with the Doctor, who seemed utterly insane, and a bunch of soldiers? Or to stay here in the middle of London where it was raining and historical murderers could appear out of nowhere at any given moment? But then it was Kate Lethbridge-Stewart who caught her eye again and she granted Ruby a friendly smile. Madman and soldiers seemed to be the safer option.

Carefully Ruby climbed into the back of the spacious car next to Kate Stewart while the Doctor took the passenger seat. It was warm in here and above all dry and Ruby was glad to have made the decision to tag along. Then she suddenly realized that she had no idea where they would be going at all. At this point Ruby almost believed anything to be possible.  
“Where are we going?” she found herself asking while she struggled to fasten her seatbelt.  
“Tower of London,” the Doctor's voice came from the front of the car, “Secret UNIT base.”  
“Secret?” Ruby laughed, “If it's secret, why are you telling me, a complete stranger?”  
She looked around the car, but the Doctor was staring at the road ahead and Kate still gave her that smile that seemed somewhere between sympathetic and knowing. That woman was so calm that Ruby almost got the impression she saw that kind of thing on a daily basis.  
“We have ways to ensure that it remains secret. We've successfully deleted countless of memories in the past years alone,” the woman explained, “That's no trouble at all.”  
Ruby's eyes widened in horror. “Okay,” she breathed and turned to look at the driver's headrest. Secret organisations. Deleting memories. A madman who talked gibberish about temporal. . . whatever. Murderous historical figures appearing out of nowhere. Slowly Ruby was beginning to understand what was going on. She was losing her marbles.  
“So, you're the new one, huh?” Kate's voice tore her out of her thoughts, “Don't worry, we're not gonna delete your memory. The Doctor's companions are off limits.”  
“Companion?” Ruby turned to look at her, her eyebrows raised, “I'm not his companion. I don't even know him.”  
“Yeah,” she smiled, “It always starts that way.”  
“Stop telling the girl lies about me, Kate,” the Doctor barked from the front seat, “I'm warning you. Or I might go back and organize some embarrassing baby photos of you.”  
Kate Stewart didn't seem to take his threat too seriously as she turned to look at Ruby, winking at her. They really seemed to know each other well.  
Ruby sank deeper into the car seat, still torn whether she should believe that she was losing her mind or whether she was merely surrounded by mad people. Or maybe she would wake up tomorrow and realize that everything had been a dream. At this point Ruby didn't want to rule anything out.  
Everyone else fell silent soon and Ruby turned her head to look out of the window as they drove in the direction of the Tower of London. Just an hour ago her biggest worry had been to find a place to sleep tonight and she found herself asking what Sarah would say if she just showed up on the doorstep of the flat they had shared until now and told her about everything that had happened tonight. Her friend would never even for a moment believe a single word of it all. For a brief moment she even considered driving out of the city to visit her parents, but Ruby quickly brushed the thought aside. It wasn't that they had had a fight or anything like that, but she was almost 22 years old now and she was trying to find her own place in the world without the aid of her parents. Her mother had always told her that Ruby came after her, that she had been just like that and worse when she had been young, but Ruby had always found that hard to believe.  
“We're here,” Kate Stewart's voice interrupted her train of thoughts and when Ruby's eyes focused on what was outside of the car window, she recognized without doubt the Tower of London, the secret base of whatever taskforce this was. Well, they had gotten past security, so maybe that part really was true.

Once they had gotten out of the car Kate Stewart started leading the way, the Doctor following her closely on her heels, so Ruby had no choice but to trail after them and for the first time she asked herself why she was here at all. They could have let her go, no, they should have sent her away after the soldiers had showed up. Why had the Doctor invited her to come along? Quickly she sped up her movements and caught up with the strange man in the velvet coat.  
“Sorry, but I gotta ask. Why am I here?”  
The Doctor turned to look at her as she eyed him expectantly and for a moment he seemed confused. A frown appeared on his face as he considered his response.  
“Uhm, assistance?” he replied and yet it sounded more like a question than an actual answer. He wasn't sure why he had brought her along either.  
“I doubt I'll be of any use here,” Ruby said with a shrug, “Jack the Ripper and temporal. . . stuff, whatever you called it, that's not really my area of expertise.”  
“Temporal shifts,” the Doctor smiled at her, “It means something has been taken out of their normal time stream and put somewhere else.”  
When he put it like that it sounded almost logical to Ruby. Except that it wasn't logical at all.  
“So you're saying that something or someone has taken Jack the Ripper, the _actual_ Jack the Ripper, out of the 19th century and put him into modern day London?” she raised her eyebrows further while she asked the question, “You do realize how crazy that sounds?”  
“Exactly,” the Doctor agreed instantly before his voice started to sound a little more thoughtful, “That's why I don't think that Jack the Ripper was their target. Something else is happening here. What exactly is your area of expertise?”  
“Animals,” Ruby replied without even thinking about it, “I work at the zoo. Uhm, well, I used to. Sort of lost my job today.”  
She watched as the Doctor opened his mouth, obviously wanting to ask why she had been fired, when Kate Stewart stopped at a door and beckoned them to follow her inside.  
Ruby had assumed that after watching Jack the Ripper appear and disappear in the streets of London she had seen it all, but nothing could have prepared her for what she found when she stepped inside the building. She had been to the Tower before, several times, and she had thoroughly enjoyed the old walls and the history that surrounded the place, but to her surprise she found herself in a modern corridor made entirely out of metal. It had an almost futuristic look to it and Ruby found herself glancing around in amazement while the security guard unlocked the heavy door at the end of the corridor. A few moments later Ruby's mouth fell open.

“Welcome to the Black Archive where UNIT keeps anything deadly and alien,” the Doctor announced, the pride all too audible in his voice.  
Ruby had no idea what any of that stuff even was, but it certainly looked rad. They seemed to have hoarded anything even remotely cool looking: helmets, weapons and many things she didn't even know the name for. Then a very important question began to dawn on her.  
“Hang on, _alien_?”  
“Yes,” the Doctor grinned at her, the corners of his mouth almost touching his ears, “Alien. It means from another-”  
“I know what alien means,” she cut him off and suddenly her heart started racing in her chest. It was true, wasn't it? All of it, all the rumours, the mad stories about spaceships in the sky and attempted invasions and metal men flying over London. It was true. And then she remembered what he had said to Kate earlier, the one sentence that had bothered her even then. Ruby raised her finger to point at him while she fought to get the words out. “You. . .”  
“Yes,” the Doctor confirmed, giving her another broad smile, “Is that a problem?”  
“No,” she shook her head, frowning at him. He looked human. Strange, but human. “I don't think so. I'm just gonna need a moment to. . . you know. . . “  
“Of course,” he said and turned towards Kate Steward who had been waiting patiently for them to finish their conversation. “Okay, Kate, why are we here? What's the connection?”  
“I'll explain everything,” she confirmed, “Follow me.”  
As Ruby set her feet into motion and walked through UNIT's collection of alien artefacts she realized just how wrong she had been earlier. Her day was about to get a lot stranger.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the comment, MarieAnneLouise :) I'm glad you're enjoying the story and, rest assured, things will not get boring for the Doctor and Ruby :D

Ruby followed Kate and the mysterious, alien Doctor deeper into the archive past weapons that looked so dangerous that Ruby thought she could trigger them simply by giving them an odd look. Then she spotted something infinitely stranger. A woman, apparently asleep, was slumped down on a chair and as Ruby closed in on her she noticed a striking resemblance to a very prominent figure.  
“What happened to that woman?” she enquired curiously.  
“Nothing,” Kate Stewart replied in her stride, “We sedated her until we can figure out a way to send her back. The other things appeared and disappeared on their own, but she. . . I don't know. Something went wrong, I assume.”  
Ruby giggled. “She looks like Margaret Thatcher.”  
Suddenly the Doctor bent a little closer until his hair almost brushed her ear. “That's because it is Margaret Thatcher,” he whispered.  
“Oh.”  
“You've just met Jack the Ripper,” he said, eyeing her closely as they continued their way through what looked like a storage unit filled with alien devices, “Surely good, old Maggie can't shock you?”  
“Good?” Ruby cocked her eyebrows at him, “I can think of many words to describe her, but _good_ isn't necessarily one of them.”  
“Thatcher the Milk Snatcher?” The Doctor granted her an insecure looking smile.  
She gave a nod in approval. “Much better.”  
Eventually Kate Stewart came to a halt next to a large table and gestured for them to sit down before taking a seat herself. Ruby followed her example because even though she had just been sitting in a car her legs still felt a little tired. The Doctor, however, chose to stand.  
“Alright, Kate,” he almost growled, “What's going on? Why are you looking at me like you're expecting a lecture?”  
The woman sighed heavily and twiddled her thumbs in a nervous gesture before she finally took a deep breath and began to speak. Ruby listened closely, curious as to what was really going on. The Doctor had already mentioned that someone or something was causing it, taking people out of their time stream to the here and now, but she was pretty sure she was going to get more answers in just a few moments.  
“As you well know, Doctor, we select our employees carefully and we monitor them as closely as we can to avoid breaches in security,” Kate Lethbridge-Stewart explained, “We examine their physical and psychological health, we have failsafe security protocols that no one has been able to outwit so far and-”  
The Doctor scoffed next to Ruby, cutting Kate's sentence short. “That sounds like the beginning of a story that went horribly wrong.”  
Kate swallowed hard in her throat when Ruby watched her before she continued. “There has been a break-in,” she admitted, staring straight at the Doctor, “Some things have been stolen from the Black Archive.”  
When Ruby glanced towards him, the Doctor's face was lined in a deep, thoughtful frown.  
“It happened almost two weeks ago,” Kate went on, “We didn't notice at first because we were convinced that no one could get past our security. It was only when the temporal shifts started to happen that we checked and noticed several things missing.”  
“Any idea who did it?” Ruby asked before she could stop herself and instantly regretted even opening her mouth. Technically she shouldn't even be here. Whatever this organisation was, it was a closely guarded secret and her presence would surely not be without consequences. Yet to her surprise Kate Stewart answered her.  
“Whoever it was, they must have been working for us for a long time. They knew exactly what they were looking for, they overpowered the security guard and activated our automated memory filters and erased the guard's memory of the incident. When he woke up he thought he had only fallen asleep during his shift,” she paused to take a long, deep breath. To Ruby it seemed as if she was almost relieved to have finally gotten this off her chest. “We immediately started to look for the person responsible for the break-in. We found suspects, but two out of three really were at home on sick leave just like they had said.”  
“What about the third?” the Doctor enquired sharply.  
Kate hesitated for a long moment. “We haven't been able to locate him.”  
Ruby flinched at the sound when the Doctor suddenly clapped his hands together before he started pacing the room right in front of the table and to her surprise he was grinning like an idiot. Okay, Ruby hadn't lost it yet, but the Doctor certainly had.  
“A mystery. It's been a while since I've had a mystery. Who is he? What does he want?” he asked excitedly, “Ohhhh, this is going to be interesting.”  
He raised his arm and pointed at Kate. “Don't worry, we will find him. But first I'm going to need a list of everything that's missing from the Archive and a large portion of fish 'n chips. No, better yet, two portions! I bet Ruby is hungry, too.”  
“Uhm,” Ruby blurted out, still somewhat taken aback by his sudden energetic outburst and enthusiasm, “I don't eat fish.”  
“Good. More fish for me and chips for the young lady,” the Doctor demanded, “And don't forget the list!”

While Kate drew out her phone and demanded to be brought everything the Doctor had asked for, he started pacing the rooms, apparently looking for whatever might be missing on his own. Ruby had no idea what to do, no idea why she had even been brought here in the first place, so she rose from her seat as well and pretended to be busy inspecting a curious, ancient looking helmet. What would happen if she just sneaked out and left? Surely she wasn't of importance around here, they wouldn't need her help. But Ruby had seen things she probably shouldn't have seen. Would they hunt her down and erase her memory after all?  
But then again, she was curious, wasn't she? The mad Doctor, the secret organisation, whatever was happening in the city right now that had brought those people here from the past. If she left, Ruby would never find out about any of it.  
A few minutes passed before a young man hurried inside, carrying two large potions of food that he set down on the table before he handed the Doctor a list.  
“There, sir, everything you asked for.”  
Ruby watched the Doctor glower at the man who immediately seemed to shrink under the Doctor's gaze.  
“Sir?”  
“Uh,” the young man stammered, “Mr President.”  
Ruby frowned at the title, but the Doctor appeared to be a little more pleased with the new one before he snagged one of the chips from the plate and stuffed it into his mouth.  
“Thanks for the list,” he said and snatched the piece of paper out of the young man's hand. Then he finally sat down at the table and started to read, giving Ruby one more moment to reconsider. No one would notice if she sneaked out. But then she would never learn the truth.  
Instead of fleeing Ruby decided to stick around for the time being. Up until now her life had been fairly ordinary, if not boring. Now it was filled with historical figures, secret organisations, a man who claimed to be an alien and many, many questions. She moved away from the helmet to something that seemed far more human to her eyes – a large board with photos and files pinned to it that Ruby couldn't immediately make sense of. It showed a lot of different people and on one of the photographs Ruby recognized Kate Stewart next to a beautiful, young woman with long, brown hair. The same woman was on other photos as well, posing with a handsome man in a bow tie.  
“He's complicated.”  
The unexpected voice made Ruby turn around, only to realize that Kate Stewart had approached her and was now standing right next to her, eyes fixed on the board of pictures.  
“Who?” Ruby asked. There were loads of people on the photos, there was no way of knowing who she was talking about.  
“The Doctor,” Kate said and nodded towards the pictures. Ruby didn't quite understand. Then she went on. “He is strange and often rude, but I don't think any of us would be here if it wasn't for him. He has saved the earth from so many dangers that we've lost count. I trust him completely to save us again this time.”  
“Who are all these women?” Ruby found herself wondering out loud, looking back at the old photographs. Some seemed to date back into the 60s.  
“His companions,” Kate smiled at her, “Assistants. They all travelled with the Doctor. It's what he does. He chooses someone and shows them the universe.”  
When her eyes landed on the photo of the pretty brunette again, Ruby suddenly found her view blocked by Kate's arm as she reached out and took the photo off the board. She was about to open her mouth and ask about it, but something on Kate's face held her back.  
“I probably shouldn't tell you any of this. The Doctor hates it when he's not the first to tell a story,” she explained and hesitated for a moment. Ruby got the distinct impression that there was something she really, really wanted to tell her regardless.  
Kate glanced towards the board and then back at Ruby, a thoughtful expression on her face. “There's just one thing you should know. He's a good man. Probably the best you'll ever meet.”  
Ruby's face turned into a frown. “And bonkers.”  
It took her a moment, but then Kate laughed. “Yes, and bonkers.”

“Ha!” the Doctor's triumphant voice came from the background as he rose from his seat.  
“Also, did I mention that he's brilliant?” Kate asked towards Ruby with a proud smile on her face.  
With the list still in his hand, the Doctor approached the two woman and the closer he came the madder the excited expression on his face appeared to grow. “I think I figured out what he needed the parts for. And now I'll need his home address so I can pay him a little visit,” he explained, his voice agitated. Ruby thought that he must really have figured something out, but he wasn't quite so keen to share his revelation.  
“We already searched the house. We found nothing,” Kate told him.  
The Doctor scoffed. “I'm sorry, Kate, but humans aren't known to have the best eye sight. I'd rather have a look at it myself. Are you coming, Ruby?” he asked and already turned around to make his way towards the door.  
Ruby suddenly felt frozen on the spot, taken aback by the unexpected invitation to join. . . a criminal investigation into the theft of alien artefacts. The Doctor noticed her hesitation and soon his eyes were back on her. He seemed confused more than anything.  
What was it that she had been thinking earlier? That she wanted a new adventure? Well, this would certainly be one. But to just follow the Doctor?  
“Is it going to be dangerous?” she asked.  
“Most certainly.”  
“And will we find out who did it?”  
The Doctor nodded slowly. Well, at least he seemed confident and she did want answers. Ruby couldn't help but laugh at the sheer insanity of the entire situation.  
“And to think that just an hour ago my biggest worry was to find a place to crash for the night,” she laughed nervously. Damn, she really wanted to go with him for some reason. Despite everything that had happened.  
“I'll tell you what,” he took a step in her direction as he spoke, “Save the world with me, Ruby, and I'll let you sleep at my place tonight.”  
She raised her eyebrows doubtfully.  
“I've certainly got enough space. You'd have your pick among at least five bedrooms.”  
Well, since he was offering and since he seemed sincere. . .  
“Ruby Smith,” the Doctor smiled down at her and there was a twinkling in his eyes that told her he was very much excited about what was lying ahead of them. It was almost contagious. “I promise you that this will be like nothing you've ever seen before and you will probably never see anything like it again.”  
“Alright,” Ruby breathed, unable to hold back from smiling at him in return, “Let's go and investigate a little.”  
The Doctor instantly straightened his back and he seemed ready to jump straight into action. “Alright, Kate, I need a car to take me to the man's house. Ruby, with me!”  
Before she could do anything else the Doctor had reached for her hand and she found herself being dragged towards the door, headfirst into what seemed like an utterly mad adventure.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me give you both a big hug for the sweet comments!!! Seriously, I am beyond thrilled that you're enjoying it because it's kinda hard to sell sci-fi to the readers. Thank you!!!

Once again Ruby found herself in the back of one of UNIT's spacious cars that was meant to take them to the thief's house and by now she could feel the excitement in her bones. It was almost like one of those crime shows her former roommate loved to watch and Ruby had been sucked right into the middle of it, only it was a little more alien. The Doctor climbed into the seat next to her and just a few seconds later the list of the stolen items was dropped into her lap. Ruby picked it up while the car set into motion.  
“What did he steal and why? What is he planning to do?” she asked the Doctor who was beaming at her in response. He was enjoying this immensely for some reason.  
“Why do humans steal anything?” he asked her in return, “Well, my people steal, too. Look at me. But my reason was boredom.”  
Ruby knitted her eyebrows at him. “You're really not human, are you?”  
The Doctor shook his head, smiling softly. “I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. We have two hearts and a slightly longer, slightly more complicated lifespan,” he explained.  
“And the next thing you're telling me is that you're 100 years old,” she chuckled. Slightly longer lifespan could mean a lot of things.  
“2000,” the Doctor replied, deadpan.  
He looked more than a little surprised when Ruby burst into laughter. “Wow, you need to tell me the brand of your moisturiser,” she joked, but soon turned serious again while she thought about everything she had witnessed earlier today. “Is that why you travel with young women? Are you like the vampire Lestat?”  
Now it was the Doctor's turn to frown.  
“You know, the vampire from the novels,” Ruby went on, “When they get too old and too lonely they make a new vampire so they can understand the changing world through their eyes. Is that why you abduct young women? Kate Stewart showed me the photos.”  
“I have never abducted anyone!” he responded in a hurtful tone, “Well, maybe a few. But that was completely unintentional.”  
“That wasn't my question,” Ruby countered.  
The Doctor let out a long, defeated sigh and all of a sudden Ruby could see a hint of sadness cross over his face. It was the same look he had given her when she had asked about the person who usually did the small talk for him. He had been looking for someone he had said.  
“I did,” he confirmed, “2000 years is a long time to be along, so of course I had companions. I love travelling the universe, I love seeing it all and it's a lot more fun when you've got someone to share it with, but-”  
When the Doctor broke off, Ruby gave him a small, encouraging nod to tell him to continue, but she didn't really need to hear the rest. Now she understood. If he truly was 2000 years old, he must have had his fair share of losses and by the look on his face Ruby could tell that one of them was recent. However, the Doctor never continued his sentence. Instead he granted Ruby a smile.  
“Why me though?” she wanted to know, “Why did you bring me along?”  
“Why do you think?” The Doctor asked in return, that smile still on his face. Ruby felt like she was being quizzed and she hated that feeling.  
“Because I saw Jack the Ripper?”  
He shrugged. “So did I for a moment.”  
“Then why?” she demanded, “Why me? I'm just a stranger who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”  
Instead of replying the Doctor drew the leather bound identification card out of his pocket, but he didn't open it to show her again. Instead he just waved it in front of her face. “I told you I was working for Scotland Yard. What exactly did you see when you looked at this?”  
Ruby was a little taken aback by his question and needed a moment to consider her answer. Now she knew that he probably wasn't working for Scotland Yard at all and if she was completely honest, she hadn't been entirely convinced from the beginning. There had been something odd about that ID, but between Jack the Ripper and a man who might or might not be a policeman she had chosen the Doctor.  
“I'm not sure,” she said carefully, “I read that your codename was the Doctor, but the rest was a bit blurry. I couldn't see it properly.”  
“This,” the Doctor continued to wave the ID card in front of her face before he slid it back inside his pocket, “is psychic paper. It allows others to see what you want them to see. It works in 99% of all cases, but not with you, not entirely.”  
Ruby frowned at him. Why hadn't it worked on her? Was her head broken?  
“Then again, most people are pudding brains,” he said disdainfully, wrinkling his nose for a moment, “But you're smart, Ruby, and you have a curious mind. You noticed the police box and questioned what I was showing you on that little piece of paper because your mind told you that something was wrong. Keep doing that. One day your life may depend on it.”  
“My life?”

The screeching of tires was the first thing that alarmed Ruby right before her body was propelled forward and the seatbelt cut into her chest. It burned painfully even after the car had already come to a halt. While Ruby was still busy taking a deep breath, the Doctor had already unbuckled his belt and leaned forward to look through the windscreen and onto the road ahead.  
“What's going on?” she asked and followed his example, but the street lights around them were flickering, making it almost impossible to see anything. Then, when the lights had gone back on for good, Ruby saw what had caused the driver to hit the brakes. An old-fashioned carriage was parked in the middle of the road. The horses were neighing nervously.  
“It came out of nowhere,” the driver explained.  
The Doctor watched intently as one of the horses bent down and sniffed the asphalt. Poor animals, Ruby thought. They were probably terrified.  
“Someone should get them off the street,” she said, “If they're from the past, they've never seen or heard a car before. They'll be scared.”  
“Good thinking,” the Doctor agreed and leaned towards their driver, “Call UNIT and get the carriage out of here if it doesn't vanish in the next few minutes. Ruby and I will walk the rest of the way.”  
When the Doctor opened the car door and climbed out of the vehicle, Ruby had little choice but to follow him as he carefully approached the nervous animals.  
“Yes, the air is disgusting. You're perfectly right,” he said and outstretched his hand, gently petting the horse's neck, “But with a bit of luck you will be back home soon.”  
Ruby frowned at the Doctor when she had caught up with him. “Are you talking to yourself?”  
“No, I'm talking to Brida here,” he replied and nodded towards the white mare. The lines on Ruby's face only deepened and she thought that before the night was over she would probably have earned her first frown lines at the age of 21.  
“The horse?”  
“Yes,” he said as if it should have been obvious.  
“Okay, just to be clear,” Ruby went on, “The horse has just told you that it's called Brida and that it doesn't like the air?”  
“Yes,” the Doctor repeated, “I speak horse.”  
“Okaaaay,” she breathed in reply and couldn't say why it even surprised her anymore. He was a 2000 year old alien who worked for a secret organisation that were currently trying to figure out why historical figures were popping up all over London. That said alien could talk to horses should not be that big of a surprise. She stepped forward and carefully reached out to caress the horse's neck. “Well, tell them they'll be fine.”  
“You like horses, don't you?” the Doctor enquired curiously.  
Ruby smiled in reply. “I like all animals. They're so much better than humans. They're never cruel without reason.”  
“Then why did you lose your job at the zoo if you're so good with animals?”  
For a while Ruby had completely forgotten about what had happened earlier today: losing her job, leaving her flat. It all seemed so far away, but the realization that it had indeed happened suddenly made her said. Ruby sighed and stepped away from the horse, looking straight at the Doctor.  
“I pushed a keeper into the polar bear cage,” Ruby admitted, but then her voice turned a little sharper, “He deserved it.”  
To her surprise the Doctor started to laugh.  
“Nothing happened to him. Well, apart from the fact that he wetted his pants,” she added, “But he kept teasing the animals with the food and. . . he just had it coming.”  
Still he chuckled, giving Ruby an honest smile. “I like you, Ruby Smith.”  
She shrugged in reply. “You can talk to animals. So, as of now you're my best pal, too.”  
“Well, _pal_ , shall we be on our way then?”  
Ruby didn't quite feel comfortable leaving the spooked creatures on their own, but she figured that UNIT would take care of them or that they would go back where they had come from just like Jack the Ripper, so she decided to follow the Doctor.

From the notes UNIT had provided them with Ruby knew that the suspect's name was Jonathan Haynes and that he had been working for UNIT's science department for many years up until two months ago. Eight weeks earlier he had called in sick, but if there had been a reason for his lengthy absence, the notes didn't reveal it. What they did reveal, however, was his home address that was only a few streets away.  
“Who were you looking for?” Ruby asked the Doctor as they turned around the corner and onto Haynes' street.  
The Doctor looked down at her, a puzzled expression on his face.  
“When we met you said you were looking for someone before you got distracted.”  
“Long story,” he replied and turned back around to face the pavement ahead. Ruby knew that she should stop here, that he obviously didn't want to talk about it, but her curiosity just wouldn't let it go.  
“We've still got about five minutes left before we arrive,” she argued with a shrug.  
“We can make it in four if we don't let talking slow us down,” the Doctor growled at her and Ruby decided not to ask about it further. At least not for the moment. There was always time to satisfy her curiosity later, but she would definitely get at answer at some point.  
By the time they had reached the small house on the quiet dead-end street it had started to rain again and Ruby was very much looking forward to some form of shelter, even if that meant breaking into someone's house – which was exactly what they were going to do, Ruby assumed. She had always been a bit of a troublemaker, but she had never actually broken a law and suddenly the thought of just walking into a stranger's house, even under the current circumstances, made her a little uneasy. She looked around nervously and to her dismay she spotted a couple of neighbours having a beer and a chat in front of their house right across the street. Ruby turned around and tucked at the Doctor's sleeve.  
“Doctor, I think we should wait until they're gone, don't you?”  
“No,” he replied in a low voice, “We act like we're supposed to be here. Like we live in this house.”  
“They're his neighbours!” Ruby hissed.  
“Do you know your neighbours?” he wanted to know, looking at her expectantly.  
Ruby opened her mouth to speak, but realized that the answer wouldn't turn the situation to her favour. She had no clue who her neighbours were and it was possible that those people across the street didn't know either.  
“Exactly,” the Doctor said just as they had reached the front door of the house, “Ah, the human race. Self-centred to the point that they don't even know who lives right next to them.”  
Seeing as the Doctor had a point in what he said, Ruby decided to trust him and bent down to look under the door mat for a spare key. She had heard that some people hid their keys close to the house, which, to her, seemed like a very idiotic thing to do, when the Doctor suddenly pulled out a pair of sunglasses.  
Ruby chuckled. “I think the last thing you need right now is a pair of sunglasses. It's dark.”  
He grinned at her in reply. “You think?”  
She could have sworn he winked at her behind his shades, but she couldn't be sure, and then the Doctor turned towards the locked front door. With his finger he shoved the glasses further onto his nose and they began to emit a strange sound, much like the torch he had handled earlier. To her amazement the lock clicked.  
With a smile the Doctor reached for the handle and held the door open for her.  
“After you,” he said proudly.  
Ruby stepped forward, never taking her eyes off his Wayfarers, trying to figure out how exactly he had opened the lock just by staring at it.  
“Sonic Sunglasses,” he said with a slight shrug, “They work like the screwdriver you've seen earlier, but they look much cooler. And they attract less attention when you're breaking into someone's house.”  
Ruby beamed at him. “So they can open any door?”  
“That, and they can do a lot of other things. Except wood.”  
“Can I have a pair of sunglasses like that?” she asked hopefully as she finally stepped inside the house, “They could really come in handy.”  
The Doctor scoffed while he followed her inside. “Dream on, kid.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the comment :) Up until now the Doctor has been showing off. . . but he's not flawless, is he?

As soon as the door closed behind them the house went completely dark and Ruby didn't dare to take another step inside. Carefully she outstretched her arms and soon found a barrier right in front of her. There had to be a light switch somewhere and they had to find it quickly or this endeavour would soon end in bruises or a broken leg if they managed to stumble over something.  
“Can you find the light switch?” she asked the Doctor.  
“I can do better.”  
Just a few seconds later she could hear the now almost familiar sound of the sonic sunglasses before the ceiling lamps switched on and illuminated the house's corridor. Ruby looked around in disappointment once she had taken in the sight. Judging by the appearance of Kate Stewart and the soldiers she had assumed that UNIT paid their employees well, but apparently that wasn't the case for the science department. Or maybe Haynes was the kind of genius that needed to be surrounded by a mess to think properly, but the corridor of this place alone looked a lot like a battlefield.  
“Someone clearly hadn't expected visitors,” the Doctor remarked, wrinkling his nose at bag filled with rubbish that, by the looks of it, had been sitting there for quite some time. “Either that or Haynes hasn't been home for a while.”  
“If he's not home and he's not going to work, then where is he?” Ruby enquired.  
“That's exactly what we're trying to find out here,” he replied and made a step forward, further into the house. However, when Ruby suddenly heard a creaking sound from a different room, she reached for his arm and held him back. In an instant the house had gone so quiet that she could hear nothing but her own breathing and her heart thumping in her chest.  
“Did you hear that?” she whispered as quietly as humanly possible.  
The Doctor slowly bent down to be at her level. “Do you mean the creaking?”  
Ruby nodded.  
“So you didn't mean the sound of someone drawing a sword out of a sheath?”  
“ _What?!_ ”  
She hadn't meant to raise her voice, but in her panic the word had just come out of her mouth like that. Instantly she clapped her hand over her face even though she realized that whoever was on the other side of the wall had most likely noticed them already. They would have known about their presence as soon as they had switched on the light. Then Ruby could hear more sounds coming out of the same direction. Footsteps. Every cell in her body told her to turn around and flee and yet the Doctor grinned at her, nodding in the vague direction of the sounds.  
“Are you coming?” he asked.  
“Are you mad?!”  
“Yes, now come on,” the Doctor replied and resumed his stride. Ruby waited in the exact spot until he had reached the nearest door frame where he finally came to a halt. For a moment he frowned at whatever was inside the other room, but he didn't look scared. He didn't run away. Carefully Ruby followed him, her heart hammering wildly inside her chest, but her curiosity was stronger than her fear.  
“Well, congratulations,” he said towards someone waiting in the other room, “I really did not expect that.”  
Ruby didn't even have an inkling what was waiting for her in what she presumed was the living room and if the Doctor was surprised, how on earth would she react to whatever was on the other side of the wall? Then, when she finally saw it, only a single sound came out of her mouth.  
“Oh.”  
In front of her, right inside the modern living room, stood a Roman soldier. Ruby had no idea what she had expected to see, but that certainly wasn't it.  
“Is it always this strange when you're around?” she couldn't help but ask the Doctor.  
“Sometimes,” he replied hesitantly, “Most of the time.”  
Only now did Ruby realized that the Roman had drawn his sword and pointed it at the two of them while he slowly stepped closer. Carefully Ruby backed away, the Doctor copying her movements.  
“What's he doing here?” she whispered.  
It was the Roman that answered her question. “You have broken into my master's property and I have strict orders not to let you leave the premises alive.”  
“Doctor?” Ruby's voice was weak as she reached for his arm. They backed away slowly, but soon found their backs against the wall behind them.  
“That's, uhm,” he paused, “That's a little inconvenient.”  
“ _Inconvenient?!_ ”  
The Roman had followed them and he had now reached the door frame as well. Two or three steps and he would be able to pierce them with his sword. Then luckily the Doctor started to move.  
“Run!” he yelled and his hand grabbed her wrist, dragging her along the corridor and back towards the front door, but to Ruby's horror she found their escape route blocked – by a second Roman who had his sword drawn just like the first one.  
“Oh, that's not good,” Ruby muttered, the panic all too audible in her voice. She was dead. They were both dead – if the Doctor could die at all. But she was definitely dead.  
“I agree,” the Doctor said in a low voice and his grip tightened around her arm.  
“Plan?” she asked him and tried very hard not to scream out in fright as the second Roman started to close in on them. A look over her shoulder confirmed what she had been fearing. They were surrounded with no chance to get away and the Doctor didn't seem to want to do anything about it. Then Ruby took a deep breath and gathered up her courage.  
“You don't have to kill us,” she told the soldier, her voice trembling with fear, “We won't tell a soul.”  
“We have our orders,” the Roman growled in reply and came to a halt in front of them. In just a few seconds Ruby's life would be over. She knew it. She just knew it. With no other option left Ruby closed her eyes and prayed that it would be painless.

Then suddenly the Doctor yanked at her arm and she felt herself stumble sideways. When she opened her eyes the entire place was dark once more.  
“Doctor, what have you done?! They're gonna kill us!” she shouted at him right before his sonic screwdriver was switched on, whirring loudly in the silence and illuminating at least part of the corridor. They would see them. They would be killed! “No, switch it off! The Romans-”  
“Are gone,” he replied calmly and raised his screwdriver a little higher. It was now emitting a bright, blue glow and in the light Ruby could see the empty corridor. The Doctor was right. The Romans had vanished into thin air.  
“How?” she asked breathlessly. They were gone. She could calm down now, but her heart was still beating so fast.  
“Look at the light switch,” the Doctor told her and pointed his sonic screwdriver at the wall. Ruby hadn't really taken any notice of it at all, but now that she saw it clearly it was more than obvious that there was something wrong with it. It looked like the regular, ordinary light switch had been replaced by a red button with a tiny, blinking LED lamp.  
“Looks odd,” she remarked.  
“It is odd indeed because it's not your everyday light switch.”  
Ruby turned her head and eyed him curiously. “What is it then?”  
“It's connected to the machine Haynes is building. That's what he needed the stolen parts for,” the Doctor explained, “He takes people out of their normal time stream, but it takes a lot of energy to keep them here, out in the open.”  
“That's why the street lamps keep flickering whenever it happens,” Ruby realized, “It's draining the power from the nearest source, the city.”  
“Precisely,” he said and turned to look at Ruby, “He can keep them in isolated areas like this house with a force field. We activated that when we switched on the lights and called the Romans here. Quite the elaborate guard dogs.”  
Ruby frowned at him. “Are you complimenting the man that almost got us killed?”  
“Of course, he's a genius,” the Doctor scoffed and then let his gaze wander around the room, obviously considering something. “He must have come back and installed it as an alarm system after UNIT was here. Either that or they didn't switch on the lights.”  
She took a deep breath, trying to take in everything that had happened in the past few minutes. Ruby had known the Doctor for no more than two hours and it seemed as if that had been enough to turn her whole life upside down. Before tonight she had thought aliens were nothing but mad theories made up by geeks or conspiracy theorists, she hadn't known of any secret organisations and her life had never been in any immediately danger. And yet. . . a part of it was really exciting.  
“So, that's it then?” she asked, “Mystery solved? Haynes is building what? A time machine?”  
“Something like that,” the Doctor replied thoughtfully and waved his screwdriver around the room, maybe hoping to find another clue. Ruby wasn't quite sure.  
When he moved back through the corridor in the direction of the living room, Ruby followed him, trying her best not to stumble over anything that might be in their way. She hadn't really taken a good look at the lounge when they had been threatened by the Roman soldier, but now that the Doctor was slowly illuminating the room with his screwdriver Ruby tried to take in as much as she could. There had to be a clue somewhere and if there was, they would find it. She was certain of that.  
“But it doesn't make sense,” he said after a moment, his voice dripping with confusion. “When you build a time machine you do it because you want to _travel_ in time.”  
“Maybe Haynes did that,” Ruby suggested, “Maybe he's long gone.”  
“No.” She watched the Doctor's shadow shake his head. “Haynes is still here and he felt the need to guard his house because it is important to him. Something in here is so important to him that he developed a complicated mechanism to keep it safe.”  
The Doctor turned around on the spot and raised his hand to his face, biting at his fingernail. “Haynes is in the city and he is experimenting, improving his machine, but to do what?” His voice had taken on an angry tone. “I'm missing something!”  
Suddenly the Doctor started to growl in anger and Ruby instinctively backed away as he started tearing at his own hair in frustration. He was thinking so intensely that she was scared his brain might burst.  
“I feel like I know the answer already,” he cursed and banged his flat hand against his forehead, “But it's like something is blocking is out! Why? Why would you extract people out of their natural time stream?!”  
“Wait,” Ruby blurted out, “I saw something.”  
She reached for his hand that was holding his screwdriver and pointed it in the direction where she had seen the photos and she soon found the little coffee table covered in photos and condolences cards and empty take out boxes. Ruby took another step closer, noticing that the Doctor only followed her reluctantly, and the closer she came the clearer she could see the answer to the Doctor's last question.  
“You asked why he would take someone out of their time stream,” Ruby swallowed, “Well, I think Haynes lost his wife. That's got to be a good reason, right?”  
She spun around on her heels, glancing up at the Doctor only to realize that his face had suddenly lost the little colour that it had previously had.  
“Of course,” he whispered, stepping backwards, “Of course. Yes.”  
“Doctor, are you okay?” Ruby felt the need to ask. He really didn't look like he was alright.  
“What?” he asked back and looked down at her. Only slowly he seemed to become aware of her question. “Oh, yes. No. But yes. You're right. Haynes is trying to extract his wife. He is working to improve his machine, trying to find a way to keep her here permanently.”  
The Doctor paused and Ruby noticed as the realisation struck him. The lines on his face deepened as he spoke. “I think he may be on the way to success. And if he succeeds, there'll be chaos.”  
A sudden shiver ran through Ruby's body at the sound of his voice, making the little hears on the back of her neck stand up. There was something dark in it, something knowing. She dreaded to think what would happen if Haynes really managed to pull it off.  
“What makes you think he's succeeding?” she asked.  
The Doctor raised his eyebrows at her. “You saw Margaret Thatcher, didn't you? She hasn't disappeared. She's here and she's not going anywhere,” he growled, “Haynes has already cracked it. Our only hope is to find him before he realizes that.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comments, guys :)))) Wow, it sure looks like the Doctor and Ruby could use a moment to catch their breath. But will they have that?

When Ruby stepped out of Haynes' house she had already been looking forward to not stumbling around in darkness any longer, yet to her dismay she found that on the entire street the lights had gone out. With a sigh she let her shoulders sink.  
“Really not our lucky day, is it?” she asked the Doctor.  
He came to a halt next to her and in the dim moonlight Ruby watched him frown. Then she noticed the same thing the Doctor had apparently taken notice of a few seconds earlier.  
“Wouldn't it be great if it was just a coincidence that the street lights and all the lights in all the houses on this street have gone out at the same time?”  
“I don't believe in coincidences,” he replied thoughtfully and reactivated his sonic screwdriver. With his arm and the screwdriver outstretched the Doctor turned around in a circle until he finally stopped after 360 degrees. “The entire city is without power.”  
Ruby looked up at him and found that it was almost impossible to see the expression on his face. She had never imagined London to be so dark without power. “Haynes?” she asked.  
“Would be a coincidence if it wasn't,” the Doctor said gravely, “And I've just said I don't believe in coincidences.”  
“Do you think he knows we were inside his home?”  
She heard the Doctor exhale sharply. “Worse. He knows _I_ was in his house and he knows I'm on my way, which means-”  
He broke off, turning his head in her direction, but not looking at her. Instead the Doctor was staring at the sky.  
“What is it?”  
“Shush!” he hushed her sharply and a moment later the Doctor bent down and covered her mouth with his index finger. Ruby didn't dare to move. Now that she came to think about it, the city seemed eerily quiet without power as well and only a few cars seemed to still be driving around. And yet, something about the sound of the cars seemed odd.  
Because it wasn't cars she was hearing. It was planes.  
“Ruby,” the Doctor said calmly, his voice low and dangerous, “Run as fast as you can.”  
She had meant to ask him what was wrong, but the Doctor had already grabbed her hand and now he was dragging her along through the dark street and back to where they had come from. He was fast and once again Ruby regretted the fact that she wasn't in shape at all. Once this was over she vowed to go running on a daily basis.  
“What's wrong?” she panted when they had left the dead end street, “Why are we running?”  
“Just keep up,” he called out to her, “We need to get away from here. We need to get to my ship.”  
“Why?!”  
The Doctor came to an abrupt stop and Ruby almost bumped into him as he did. He looked at her intently. “Ruby, this man knows me and he knows I'm trying to stop him, so he's trying to stop us first.”  
“How?!” Ruby almost yelled at him, still utterly out of breath. More exercise. That was what she needed.  
“Those aren't modern planes,” he said hastily, gasping for air between the words, “That's a bomber squadron. From World War Two.”  
It only took a second for his words to sink in.  
“Run!” Ruby yelled instinctively and darted down the pavement as soon as she had grasped the meaning of his words, the Doctor running right next to her. It was insane, all of it. The Romans. The time machine Haynes was building. And now they were going to be under attack by bombers. And yet all of it was very, very real and her life was in actual danger. Again.  
“That man must really hate you if he sends World War Two planes after you,” she panted as the Doctor turned around the next corner.  
“What can I say?” he replied, “I try not to make so many enemies. Never really works.”  
In the distance Ruby could hear the first impact, followed by the sound of an explosion, and her mind wandered to what the Doctor had said to her before.  
“When you said ship,” she started, panting as she ran, “do you mean space ship?”  
“And time machine,” he added, “Safest place in all of London right now.”  
“Sounds great,” Ruby gasped. Her legs were burning again and she just knew that she would pay for all the running with really sore muscles tomorrow. If she actually survived today. It was probably smarter to stop talking now and save her breath for the running, but the Doctor seemed to be in a talkative mood right now, so she decided to have one more go. “So, who have you lost?”  
Instinctively she ducked as a plane flew right over their heads with a deafening sound. She had no clue where in London they were and where the Doctor had hidden his space ship, but Ruby dearly hoped that it wasn't far or her lungs would explode before they could reach it.  
“We're in the middle of a German air raid,” the Doctor barked, “Do you really think this is a good time for personal questions?”  
“Might be the only time we have,” she argued breathlessly, “You went as pale as milk in there. What happened?”  
Ruby's voice was drowned out by the sound of several planes flying over them, but that was nothing compared to the earth shattering bang she heard next that made her ears go deaf in an instant. The ground started shaking under her and a few seconds later there was a blast that knocked her off her feet. Her ears were ringing. She was most likely dead.

“Ruby!”  
The Doctor's voice was muffled while he reached for her hand and helped her up and Ruby held on tight to his arm to keep herself steady. Her knees were weak and she felt disoriented. Then she saw fire and the smoke where they bomb had gone off. An actual bomb. In the middle of London. The London that was full of people. They were all going to die and the sudden realisation hit her like a sledgehammer.  
“Ruby,” the Doctor shook her by her arms, “We need to move. We'll be safe once we're in the TARDIS.”  
But Ruby couldn't move. Her feet were glued to the spot and all she could do was stare at him. “What about everyone else?” she asked, her voice sounding odd to her own ears.  
“I'm working on it, but first we need to get to my ship,” he implored her.  
“All those people,” Ruby uttered. Whatever Haynes had done, whatever he was still trying to do, it had killed people and she was afraid that many more would die before the man could be stopped.  
“Listen to me,” the Doctor stared right into her eyes while his fingers started digging into her skin through the fabric of the jacket, “I promise I will do everything I can to save them. But I need my ship and I need you to trust me. Come on, Ruby, let's save them together!”  
The Doctor was mad, but right at this moment she realized that he was probably the only one who could actually stop Haynes. For some reason she trusted him and she trusted in what Kate Stewart had told her about him. Ruby nodded, but when a car turned around the corner she realized that there was no need to run anymore when Kate and several UNIT soldiers stepped out of it.  
“Doctor, please tell me you can stop this,” Kate's voice sounded desperate as she approached them. She looked desperate, too.  
“I can once I get back to the TARDIS,” he told her, “Haynes is building a time machine and he knows that I know. I have to stop him.”  
The TARDIS. That was the second time the Doctor had mentioned that strange name, only now Ruby had actually paid attention to it. She wasn't quite sure, but her best guess was that it was the name of his ship. Which he had said was also a time machine.  
She was about to open her mouth and ask about it when Kate's phone rang in her pocket and she drew it out to answer the call.  
“Doctor, shouldn't we be on our way?” she pressed, “More planes could show up any second.”  
The Doctor lowered his gaze to look at her. “Yeah, you're probably right.”  
They had started to move just as Kate Stewart turned back around to face them and she let her phone sink, a look of defeat on her face while another bomb went off in the distance. They had to move before the the entire city was reduced to a pile of rubble.  
“That was the Minister of War,” Kate said, the disbelief audible in her voice, “He's just resumed command over the entire operation, including the UNIT troops. He removed my authority over them.”  
The Doctor knitted his eyebrows. “The Minister of War?”  
“He says that since it's not an alien attack and no alien is responsible, the handling of the situation falls under his command.”  
“And I'm the President of Earth,” the Doctor countered, “Tell him I said you're in charge.”  
His gaze wandered from Kate to Ruby and then back to Kate. The frown was still on his face. “ _Minister of War_?”  
“When the country is under attack he has full authority,” Kate explained, her expression still one of doubt over how this could have happened.  
Next to Ruby the Doctor wrinkled his nose. “Is that a new thing? Oh, you humans. Always putting an idiot in charge, and an army idiot at that,” he growled and rolled his eyes.  
“It doesn't matter!” Kate barked at him, “My hands are tied from now on. It's up to you, Doctor.”  
Ruby watched as Kate granted the Doctor a pleading look.  
“Save us,” she told him.  
The Doctor nodded. “We will,” he confirmed and, in a sudden movement, he turned around to leave, “Come on, Ruby.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the comment, my faithful reader :)

They walked the rest of the way at a quick pace, but after Kate Stewart's interruption Ruby had insisted on slowing down just a little, threatening the Doctor that she would never make it otherwise. Tomorrow she would start exercising daily. Well, maybe not tomorrow, but most certainly next week. She thought that the Doctor must be running all the time because he didn't seem the least bit tired.  
“So, your space ship,” Ruby started, “How far is it?”  
“Not far,” the Doctor replied and nodded towards her small backpack, “You can leave your things there if it makes the running easier.”  
In the heat of the moment Ruby had almost forgotten she was still carrying her clothes around and of course the additional weight was slowing her down a little more.  
“I stand by what I said. You can sleep at my place,” he repeated and granted her a smile.  
“By place you mean your ship, right?”  
He nodded.  
Ruby started to chuckle in response. “You actually parked a space ship in the middle of London and no one noticed it?” she asked him, laughing, “I've realized that you think humans are thick, but we're not actually _that_ thick.”  
“Oh?” the Doctor scoffed and there was a smile on his face as he looked down at her that Ruby thought looked fairly amused. “What if I told you you've already seen my ship?”  
In reply she frowned at him and thought back to a few hours earlier. No, it couldn't be. “It's not that police box, is it?” she enquired, trying not to let her disappointment show, “Because if it is, I better call Sarah and ask her to let me back into the flat. I'm not sleeping in a cupboard. Besides, it's made out of _wood_.”  
The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but Ruby wasn't quite done yet.  
“And didn't you say it was the safest place in London right now?”  
“Look, can you just save that nagging until after you've seen the TARDIS?”  
“Fine,” Ruby growled, rolling her eyes, “But seriously, if your space ship is made out of wood, I will tease you about that until all of this is over.”  
They turned around the corner, Ruby following the Doctor on his heels, and finally she could spot the blue police box just a few more steps away from her. Even though she doubted that this thing was actually the Doctor's ship Ruby was already looking forward to resting her feet for just a moment. In a cupboard.  
The closer she came to it the more suspicious Ruby grew about the wooden box because it was what she had first noticed on this very odd evening. The strange box that hadn't been there the day before. Now that she was back at the beginning she felt more insecure about it all than ever. It was easy to be brave in the middle of an adventure, easy to believe everything when they were under attack by Romans or a bombing squadron, but now it seemed too surreal to be true. The Doctor claimed to be an alien who owned a wooden space ship. Then they both came to a halt in front of it.  
“So, Ruby,” the Doctor began and turned around to look at her. There was an expression of anticipation on his face that she didn't quite understand, but somehow Ruby got the feeling that she would understand it very soon. “Are you ready?”  
“Ready for what?” she wanted to know, frowning slightly. She had no idea what was going to happen.

The Doctor snapped his finger and as if by magic the box's door sprang open, revealing a warm glow on the inside. Instinctively Ruby turned her head to look and she couldn't believe her eyes.  
“Time and relative dimension in space,” the Doctor explained slowly as Ruby stepped over the threshold and into the ship. “TARDIS. My ship. My time machine.”  
For a moment Ruby thought she couldn't breathe and her heart suddenly started to pound in her chest while she took in the sight in front of her eyes. Even though it was only a small box on the outside, the interior was so much bigger. It looked like a weird mix between a futuristic space ship and an old-fashioned, cosy library or office, softly illuminated by what seemed to be the centrepiece of the ship. Ruby didn't think she had ever seen anything so utterly beautiful as this and in her trance she skipped ahead to have a closer look. There were bookshelves and comfortable looking chairs and what seemed to be the console or steering unit covered in buttons and toggles and switches. She had to resist the urge to try them all out.  
“What do you think?” the Doctor asked her and when he stepped into her field of vision, Ruby realized that he looked insanely proud and excited. There was that silly grin stuck on his face that made him appear like a twelve-year-old who had just showed off his favourite toy to his new friend.  
Ruby was so overwhelmed by it all that for a moment all she could do was laugh. “I don't know,” she replied and took a deep breath while she let her gaze wander once more. “It's so beautiful.”  
The Doctor chuckled. “So you're not disappointed anymore?”  
“Definitely not disappointed,” she grinned at him before her eyes wandered back to the centrepiece and she reached out to touch it. Her fingers softly caressed the metal work when suddenly the ship started to make a gurgling sound and Ruby pulled her hand away.  
“It's okay,” he reassured her, “I think she likes you.”  
Ruby started to giggle when she looked at him because all of this was completely insane and yet it was happening, to her of all people. “Wow, you're really loving this part, aren't you?”  
The Doctor replied by knitting his eyebrows at her.  
“Look at you,” Ruby gestured towards him, still chuckling, “You're totally showing off.”  
“Am not!” he argued and he sounded a little insulted.  
She snorted. “You totally are. It's fine though,” Ruby shrugged, “If I had a cool looking space ship I'd use it to show off, too.”  
“Aren't you the least bit curious?” the Doctor asked her, frowning, “Come on, you must have noticed.”  
“Noticed what?”  
The Doctor didn't reply, instead he nodded around and Ruby had another, closer look at the space ship's interior. She had no clue what he was referring to.  
“What?” she asked.  
Ruby heard him inhale sharply before the Doctor started gesturing around. “It's a police box on the outside! Bigger in here!”  
“Seriously?” she raised her eyebrows at him, “We've seen Jack the Ripper, Romans, World War Two planes, Margaret Thatcher and dozens of alien things in the UNIT archive.”  
The Doctor let his shoulders sink and Ruby rolled her eyes when she noticed how disappointed he was about her reaction. Fine, she would play along.  
“Oh my God!” she exclaimed suddenly, clasping her hand over her mouth. The frown on the Doctor's face deepened and Ruby had to hold back the laughter. “It's bigger! On the inside!”  
She reached out and grabbed the Doctor's upper arms, a pretend look of shock on her face while she gasped. “Bigger. On the inside!”  
“You're pulling my leg,” the Doctor growled in response.  
Finally Ruby let go of him, chuckling. She had teased him enough for now and she also had some serious questions that she would like an answer to. “It's amazing,” she told him truthfully, “How do you do it though? Is it like one of those magic tents in Harry Potter?”  
“No, not magic. Time Lord science. My people were good at this sort of thing,” he replied, “But how do you think J.K. had the idea?”  
Ruby crossed her arms in front of her chest, giving him a doubtful look. “Now you're pulling _my_ leg.”  
“Not at all,” the Doctor insisted, “We had a wonderful time in ancient Egypt until the Pharaoh decided to take her for his wife.”  
“Who? J.K. Rowling?” Ruby chuckled. It was hard to imagine the Doctor actually travelling in time even though by now she should have realized that everything he had told her was true. It sounded too mad to be a lie.  
Then Ruby noticed something else, a strange look on the Doctor's face that had followed her question.  
“No,” he replied thoughtfully, “No, not J.K.. She helped me come up with a plan to free her.”  
“Free who?” Ruby enquired.  
“The one I've been looking for,” the Doctor said and all of a sudden he spun around on his heels to face the console unit, hiding his face from her. “I might find her one day. Now, let's see if we can stop those planes.”  
“Doctor,” Ruby reached out to hold his hand back when he was just about to flick a switch, forcing him to look at her, and still he was desperately trying to avoid her gaze. “Who are you looking for?” she asked him, her voice soft but insistent.  
The Doctor took a long moment to reply and for a while Ruby thought he wasn't going to answer her at all. There was an expression of pain on his face, of loss, but Ruby had already guessed that and ever since they had been in Haynes' house she had been absolutely sure that he had lost someone. But for some reason Ruby thought that it wasn't as simple and straightforward as loss was for other people. No, this man was an alien and a time traveller. Things were bound to be complicated.  
“I don't remember,” he admitted after a while.

Ruby was about to ask about it when suddenly the ground started to shake under her feet again, accompanied by the sound of bombs hitting the city. It wasn't deafening like it had been earlier, but it was still a dull impact in the distance. Inside the TARDIS a bell started to toll and instinctively she reached for the console unit to keep herself on her feet. They were under attack once more.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the comment :) Oh, yes, the baddie isn't far away... and the Clara matter isn't dealt with yet either ;)

“Doctor!” Ruby cried out while her fingers were clutching the console unit as if holding on for dear life. The TARDIS was shaking violently, but even if the bombs had hit somewhere close, it didn't seem to affect the ship at all.  
“Don't worry!” the Doctor responded hastily as he made his way around the console, flicking switches and pressing buttons, “Nothing can get in here. This is the safest place in the city right now.”  
Another impact rocked the TARDIS, almost knocking Ruby off her feet.  
“ _It's made of wood!_ ”  
“Ruby,” he panted and darted around the room until he came to a halt right next to her. He bent down until they were both at eye level, staring intently at her. “Do you trust me?”  
The man was bonkers. And alien. And he had a space ship / time machine that was made out of wood. But he had also managed to save them from the Romans and Kate Stewart, who had seemed like a beacon of sanity in this mess, appeared to have absolute faith in him.  
“Yes,” she replied eventually, “Yes, I trust you.”  
“Good,” the Doctor granted her a smile, “Because nothing will ever happen to you, not while you're inside the TARDIS. You have my word.”  
A bomb detonated in the distance, but this time it was only felt as a faint rumble inside the ship.  
“How do we stop the planes from destroying London?” Ruby wanted to know. They had to do something. The city was not prepared for an attack like this.  
“Oh, I have a plan,” the Doctor chuckled and moved a few steps away from her, frantically fidgeting with the controls, “A friend of mine did this once. Well, more of an enemy than a friend and if she finds out I copied her, I'll never hear the end of it, so don't tell her.”  
“Doctor-” Ruby attempted to ask him what exactly he was talking about, but he was so busy at the controls that she didn't dare to interrupt him. Instead Ruby remained exactly where she was, watching him work his space ship. It was a strange sight, especially because just a few hours ago she hadn't even believed in aliens and time travel and now she was right in the middle of it. She had wanted an adventure, hadn't she? Well, right now Ruby was in one and despite the danger, despite the fact that all of this could go wrong, there was a tiny part inside of her that was enjoying it. Ruby felt her bad conscience tug at her because out there people were dying and she was excited because for once her life wasn't boring. And yet, by the looks of it, she wasn't the only one.  
“Pull that lever over there,” the Doctor told her with a smile and pointed at a large, silver lever.  
“This one?” Ruby asked just to be sure and the Doctor nodded in response. Carefully she closed her fingers around the handle. She was helping save the city. She was operating a space ship. If that wasn't a reason to feel at least a little bit happy and excited, Ruby didn't know what was. She pulled the lever and the entire world went quiet.  
“What?” she asked in confusion, turning her head towards the Doctor, “What happened?”  
Still he granted her a smile. “Congratulations, Ruby Smith. You just saved London from a German air raid.”  
“How?” Ruby wanted to know, “What did we do?”  
The Doctor nodded towards the door. “Come on, let's have a look.”

He skipped ahead and Ruby followed after him until they had reached the door. When he pulled it open, she almost didn't believe her eyes. The planes were still there, still in the sky. Yet they weren't moving. Ruby watched them for a long moment just to be sure and even spotted a bomb that appeared to have been caught mid-fall. Still. All of them. Frozen.  
“I reiterate,” Ruby breathed, “ _How?_ ”  
“Ah, just a cheap Time Lord trick,” the Doctor shrugged it off, but the expression on his face told Ruby that he was still very proud of what he had achieved, “Froze them in time. Haynes wants to play Time Lord, well, he's just challenged the wrong one.”  
“Are there many of you?” she questioned.  
“Not in this corner of the universe, no,” he replied and his voice had taken on a more sombre tone, “Which is probably for the best. I left my home planet and I did so for a reason.”  
Ruby made a mental note to ask about his reasons later, but right now she felt like there were more pressing matters that needed their attention – and also because she doubted the Doctor would actually answer. Even though he seemed to love to talk, Ruby had already noticed that he answered personal questions only grudgingly.  
“It can't stay like that though, can it?” Ruby asked instead, “I mean, it seems safe for now, but I doubt people will be comfortable walking around under that.”  
She pointed towards the bomb that was still caught mid-fall and hadn't moved even though they had been staring at it for a while now. Ruby wasn't even sure she would have so much faith as to walk right under it.  
“We'll find Haynes,” the Doctor said gravely, “We'll switch off the machine and they will disappear back to where they have come from.”  
Ruby looked at him questioningly. “You make it sound so easy. How are we gonna do that?”  
“Cleverly. Close the door,” he responded and turned around to head back inside the TARDIS before Ruby even had a chance to react. By the time she had followed him to the console unit the Doctor was already busy at the controls.  
“Yes, but how?” she wanted to know. She hated not knowing what exactly was going on just because someone else was too lazy to explain it to her.  
“The city is without power,” the Doctor told her while he turned one of the monitors so he could look at it, “Except for wherever Haynes is and he used the energy to power the machine that brought the planes here.”  
“I'm still not following,” Ruby said and looked at him expectantly, “Unless you suggest we go looking for the only place with its lights on in the entire city.”  
“We'll do exactly that,” the Doctor replied and grinned at her.  
She raised her eyebrows doubtfully, for a moment questioning if he really was as smart as Kate Stewart believed. It would take forever to search the entire city.  
“Except that we're using the TARDIS to find it for us. The energy signature from the event that brought the planes here will be the same. I've scanned for that and voilà,” the Doctor said and pointed at the monitor.  
Ruby made her way around the console unit and had a look. It showed a strange map and it was covered in symbols that probably meant something to the Doctor since the same kind of writing was all over his space ship, but the only thing Ruby actually recognized was the rough area in which Haynes kept his machine.  
“Looks like an old warehouse or something.”  
“We'll know in a moment,” he replied and to her surprise the Doctor pulled a lever and all of a sudden the space ship sprang to life.  
Ruby reached for the console, but soon realized that she didn't even need to. The TARDIS started to roar, the metalwork above their heads that was covered in symbols had started to turn and the lights inside the glass case at the centre had also changed, but other than that there was no indication that they were moving at all. Yet somehow Ruby knew that they must be moving. And then, a short moment later, the sound stopped along with the rotating metalwork at the top.  
“Where are we?” Ruby asked, “We've moved, haven't we?”  
The Doctor nodded, but the excitement seemed to have left him. Instead he looked weary. “We're just around the corner from where Haynes is,” he explained.  
“And now we'll stop him?”  
Ruby watched while the Doctor took a long, deep breath as if he was torn about something. He looked down at his feet for a while before he gaze came to rest on her face again. “You can wait here if you want to,” he said in a calm manner, “It's completely safe. Safer than where I'm going.”  
“What?” she frowned at him, “No way. You took me with you!”  
“I did,” he replied, “It's going to be dangerous.”  
Angrily Ruby crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at him. “I was a zoo keeper. I went into a cage with lions more than once. Just because I'm scared sometimes doesn't mean I'd rather miss out on a once in a lifetime chance.”  
The Doctor opened his mouth to reply, but Ruby cut him off.  
“I'm coming with you,” she determined, “Besides, if there are more Romans in there you will need someone to save your arse.”  
Ruby watched as the Doctor raised his eyebrows at her. “If I remember correctly, I was the one who saved your arse.”  
“Completely beside the point,” Ruby countered and marched past him towards the doors. She'd be damned if she missed out on the conclusion of the most amazing adventure of her life. Behind her the Doctor sighed, but Ruby didn't care. He had started it by inviting her to follow them into the UNIT headquarters and now she would see it through with him.

This part of the city was just as dark as the rest of it and the only thing that told Ruby they were close to Haynes was the low rumbling sound of a machine, the machine. As soon as she started to hear it, Ruby instinctively slowed down, waiting for the Doctor to catch up with her. She had given him a big speech about wanting to come along, but now that they were close to actually facing the man who was behind it all, she couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. And _uneasy_ was an understatement. Ruby was scared.  
“What are we going to do?” she asked the Doctor, her voice low, almost a whisper, “Do we punch him to the ground and call UNIT so they can drag him to a prison cell?”  
The Doctor scoffed in reply.  
“Or do you have secret alien powers that you can use against him?” Ruby went on as they turned around the corner. She could already see the door from there. “Super strength?”  
“If you mean can I open a jar of pickles effortlessly, then yes.”  
“That's a no then,” Ruby blew the air out between her teeth, “Laser beams that come out of your eyes?”  
She heard the Doctor chuckle next to her. “That would be an extremely inconvenient superpower, don't you think? How would you even look at people?”  
Ruby sighed. “Okay, what is your superpower then? If it's something gross, I'd like to know before I see it in action.”  
And before they stepped inside the warehouse which they were getting closer and closer to. It was high time for a plan. Then the Doctor stopped next to her and she felt his gaze upon her.  
“What is a gross superpower?” he asked, the confusion audible in his voice.  
Ruby came to a halt as well. “I don't know. Maybe something like the Hulk where you rip your shirt off and turn green. I'd just kinda like to know before you strip naked next to me.”  
“I'm not gonna strip naked,” the Doctor said dryly and it sounded as if he was trying very hard not to show how insulted he actually was by her last comment. It was really time they came up with a decent plan because the warehouse door was only a few steps away and by the speed the Doctor was going, they would be inside before she could question him further. “I don't have a superpower. Well, not really, except maybe not dying. Unless you count the two hearts.”  
The Doctor stopped next to the door and reached for the handle. Ruby tried to get the question out as quickly as possible.  
“What's the plan then?”  
He turned around to look at her, his hand never leaving the door handle. “We're gonna go in there and talk,” he said and tore the door open.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for the comments :) Now, you might wanna get packet of tissues for this. . . or not. . . depends on you, I guess.

“ _Talk?_ ” Ruby hissed after him when he had stepped inside the warehouse and now she was reluctant to follow after him. Talk was not what she had expected the Doctor to do, the man, the alien who had cleverly wiggled his way out of every dangerous situation they had been put in today. She had expected him to do something very clever and cool, but not a conversation.  
However the Doctor didn't seem to have heard her, so she had little choice but to follow after him. Ruby entered a narrow corridor and tried to catch up with the Doctor who had now slowed down his pace.  
“I repeat,” she whispered, “You're going to _talk_ to him?”  
“Yes,” he replied in a low voice while he was carefully moving forward, “Get him to see sense, switch off the machine, that sort of thing.”  
“That man just lost his wife,” Ruby argued, “He built a time machine to bring her back and sent a bombing squadron after you when you tried to stop him. I don't think he's going to listen to reason.”  
The Doctor shot around, throwing a dark look in her direction. “Well, we'll to have to be very convincing then, won't we?”  
He turned back around and increased his pace again and by now Ruby could already see the end of the corridor. There had to be a door close by that would lead them to Haynes and her heartbeat grew a little faster with every step. She had hoped for some clever plan, for another amazing alien trick and now that she knew the Doctor just wanted to talk, she suddenly didn't feel so safe anymore. The Doctor, however, had lost none of his vigour. Quite the contrary. The closer they came to Haynes the more intense the Doctor seemed to grow and Ruby could tell by his stride that Haynes was in for one hell of a lecture. Maybe, just maybe, that would be enough to convince him. If they were lucky.  
Apparently the Doctor had found the entrance to the main hall because he stopped at a door frame and looked into the hall. Ruby watched him adjust his posture before he walked right in.  
“Jonathan Haynes!” the Doctor called out as he burst into the room and Ruby quickly darted after him. Even though she wasn't quite as convinced his undertaking would be successful, she would not leave his side.

Again the hall that she entered shortly after did not meet Ruby's expectations. It was an abandoned warehouse, yet Haynes appeared to have used it as both his laboratory and sleeping quarters. There was the machine Haynes had built from the parts he had stolen out of the Black Archive and it looked too complicated for Ruby to even try to understand. It was emitting a rumbling sound that was a lot louder than she had expected, but then again, she had so far only heard it from the outside, and it looked as if Frankenstein had had another go, but this time his aim had been to create a proper looking machine that had turned out a little too. . . patchwork. She could clearly see where the stolen parts had been added and connected with more wires than she could count. One part of the machine was also giving off sparks and even though Ruby wasn't an expert, she was fairly certain that it wasn't supposed to do that.  
When her gaze shifted a little to the left, she spotted Haynes' sleeping quarters, a makeshift kitchen and, on an old mattress, a woman who could only be Haynes' wife. Ruby couldn't say how she was so certain about that, but the frightened look on her face told her that she wasn't entirely on board with what her husband was doing. And that she was too scared to speak up.

“How did you find us?” Haynes rose from a seat next to his machine and threw the Doctor a sharp look. It was obvious that he hadn't expected company. In fact, Ruby thought he had expected them to die in the air raid.  
The Doctor stood in the hall for a very long moment, shoulders low, hands in his pockets, before he actually spoke. Even when he was silent he seemed to take up the entire room. “You're a genius, Haynes,” he said and started pacing the floor in the centre of the room, “You outsmarted the UNIT security system. You built your own time machine from nothing but spare parts and, trust me, if anyone else at UNIT had been capable of that, they would have done it a long time ago. The alarm system you put up in your house was amazing. I mean, Romans that appear once you flick the light switch.”  
The Doctor gave an approving nod and then fell silent. Ruby looked over to Haynes who seemed to wait patiently for the Doctor to continue, but he took his time. Even Ruby was beginning to grow uneasy now and if she was in Haynes' shoes, she would probably be scared already. He hadn't even started yet and she was already impressed by his mere presence.  
“The problem with being a genius is,” he paused, “that there's always someone smarter. Someone with a TARDIS who can track the energy signature from the planes in the sky and it led me directly to you. Don't worry about planes, by the way, they're not going anywhere.”  
The machine to her right made a loud whirring sound and a couple more sparks came flowing from the console. It most likely wasn't supposed to do that.  
“Ah, that's your problem, isn't it?” the Doctor asked and Ruby couldn't be quite sure, but she thought she saw the Doctor smile.  
Haynes only glared at him in reply.  
“I froze the planes, but they're still draining power from your machine. In fact, they're draining _all the power_. You can't call your Roman friends or anything else here because they're too far out of reach for the machine to handle,” he shrugged, “Furthest it could reach back is. . . I don't know, a year? Two at tops? Which is the only reason she is still here.”  
The Doctor nodded towards the woman and by now Ruby was certain that she was indeed Haynes' wife. He had succeeded. His wife was back, but she didn't exactly seem happy about the fact. And why would she? As far as Ruby understood, the machine didn't have the capability to bring her back completely, or at least Haynes hadn't entirely figured out how it could do that. Just like the Romans she would have to remain inside a force field which he had probably placed around this warehouse. And that was anything but a lovely environment.  
“Haynes,” the Doctor said as he took a step towards the scientist. His voice was surprisingly soft and gentle, “She doesn't belong here. It's wrong and you know it.”  
Haynes shook his head.  
"I can't let you continue to do this. You can't take people out of their time stream to bring them here, to the future. It's gonna plunge everything into chaos. You even altered your own time line by bringing your wife here,” the Doctor said and he sounded somewhere between pleadingly and weary. Ruby thought he must have tried to talk sense into countless people just like this, and not all of them had listened to him.  
To her surprise Haynes' wife stepped forward and Ruby failed to understand the look on her face, so she waited patiently as the small woman took the centre of the laboratory next to her husband.  
“He's right,” the woman admitted after a long moment of silence before she turned around to face Haynes, “The Doctor is right, Jonathan. I don't belong here. Please, send me back, along with everyone else.”  
Once again all Haynes did was shake his head, more frantically this time. Ruby thought that he knew just how badly he had messed up and that he simply refused to give in. It was right there on his face, obvious for everyone, even for her. Then finally he spoke.  
“I'd be sending you to your death. I won't. I can't let you die. Not again. You know what's going to happen, you know I can't do it alone.”

The Doctor shuffled his feet uncomfortably and by now Ruby wasn't entirely sure he hadn't seen something like this before. He looked nervous, uncertain even. But she knew that something needed to be done about this. Someone had to stop Haynes and if the Doctor couldn't do it, somebody else would have to.  
Then Haynes, his face now harder than before, turned his attention back to the Doctor.  
“Doctor, I know you. I've known you for years. I've seen you wear face after face, but one thing never changed. You _always_ had a friend by your side. I don't know what happened to them, but one day you would always show up with someone else. Tell me, what happened to all of them? Isn't there anyone you would bring back if you only could?”  
Ruby turned to look at him and saw the Doctor's face distort into a grimace. It was almost as if he was in pain and she only had to guess what Haynes was playing at. At UNIT she had heard about the Doctor, the Time Lord who always travelled with a human companion. He had been alone when she met him, he had been looking for someone, so Ruby knew that his last friend must have gotten lost somewhere along the way. The Doctor refused to tell her about it, but the pain of loss was written all over his face.  
“Do not even finish that sentence,” the Doctor said slowly, his voice threatening, but Haynes didn't listen. He turned around to the control panel of his machine, flicking some switches. The engines suddenly sprang to life again.  
“I think you want me to, Doctor,” Haynes, now facing the Doctor again, said with a nervous laugh, “Who is it? The one you stopped the Zygon invasion with? The teacher? You lost her and you want her back, don't you?”  
The Doctor stood rigid, still staring angrily at Haynes – but to her horror Ruby saw that he didn't protest. Looking back at the scientist, she noticed the mad glare on his face as he turned back to his machine and pressed a large, red button.  
The lights of the room flickered and grew dimmer as the engines used up the last remaining energy resources. A howling of sirens forced Ruby to cover her ears, but when she glanced at the Doctor she saw that he seemed completely unimpressed by the whole spectacle, remaining frozen on the spot. Then the lights went back to normal and the noise ceased. 

Looking to the Doctor for reassurance she noticed that he was no longer where he had been just a moment ago, so Ruby searched the room for him and noticed that another person had appeared, brought here by Haynes' machine.  
She was a petite woman with brown hair, which was all Ruby could tell from her back, and the Doctor seemed spellbound by her appearance as he walked up to where the woman was standing. Ruby had no idea what to do and suddenly began to feel absolutely lost as she watched the Doctor being absolutely spellbound by the woman who had just appeared. Behind her the machine started to gurgle in a way it hadn't done before. It didn't have enough power for whatever was happening.  
“Doctor!” Ruby called out for him, but he didn't seem to notice her. And neither did he notice that Haynes was slowly backing away. He was getting away and the Doctor was doing absolutely nothing about it except staring at the woman in front of him. He had almost reached her and Ruby didn't have the slightest idea what was going to happen. Then the woman spoke.  
“Doctor, what is going on? I was at school and now- where I am? Did _you_ bring me here? You know the rules-” the woman said towards the Doctor, her voice ringing with anger and disappointment.  
Ruby couldn't decide what to do. She watched helplessly as the Doctor interrupted the woman by throwing his arms around her at the same time that Haynes was making a run for it.  
“Clara,” the Doctor said, clinging to the small woman as if holding on for dear life, his face buried deep into her shoulder, “You're somewhere where you absolutely shouldn't be.”  
“Doctor!” Ruby cried out again, desperate to gain his attention while the machine, the _entire_ machine, suddenly started going off in sparks. She turned around to find Haynes' wife at the controls, pressing buttons. She had no idea what she was doing and neither did Ruby and she still sprinted towards the machine.  
“How do we switch it off?” she asked desperately.  
“I don't know,” Haynes' wife was in tears, furiously flicking switches and pressing buttons that did nothing except apparently drain further power from the building. The lights went off and back on again, flickering so madly it was becoming hard to see what exactly they were doing.  
“We need to stop this!”  
“He said I will die,” the woman said through her tears, “I don't wanna die but this is madness!”  
“Maybe you don't have to die,” Ruby almost yelled at her. She was so bad at this, so lost, she needed someone who could tell her what to do. She had been craving an adventure but not like this, not if it meant that she was on her own. The howling of the machine was getting louder and louder, the sirens restarting and she could tell that something terrible was going to happen as a flame shot out of the rear part. It was going to explode, she was sure of it. It was going to blow up and take all of them with it. “I don't know,” Ruby admitted helplessly, then turned back towards the Doctor. He was still holding the woman in an almost desperate embrace, whispering something into her ear and it seemed as if no force in the entire world could tear him away from her, “ _Doctor! I need you! We need to switch this thing off!_ ”  
When he didn't react Ruby made a decision. She went down on her knees and crawled under the machine and immediately spotted a whole lot of cables. Whatever she was about to do, she thought it could hardly get any worse than this. Without thinking about it any further she grabbed some of the cables and pulled. The machine instantly powered down and a few seconds later the room fell absolutely silent.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the comment, as always, my faithful MarieAnneLouise :)

When Ruby emerged back from under the machine the first thing she noticed was that Haynes' wife had disappeared and as she turned around to where the Doctor had been standing, she saw that he, too, was alone, holding nothing but air where just a few moments ago the woman had been woven into his embrace. She watched as the realisation struck him, the expression on his face changing to something darker, something infinitely sad and heartbreaking. The look on his face was purely devastating. For a moment Ruby thought he would start to cry or scream out in pain or take an axe to this place to destroy it. Whoever that woman was Ruby knew that she must have meant the world to him.  
“Where did Haynes go?” the Doctor growled, his watery eyes now again set on her. Whatever dream he had been caught up in he was slowly beginning to wake from from his trance. Yet something about him told her that he would have preferred to not have been woken al all.  
“He scarpered!” Ruby yelled in an accusatory tone before she could stop the words coming out of her mouth as she made her way towards him. She was fully aware that he was sad, that he was grieving, but when he looked at her with his sad eyes the anger flared up inside of her. He had brought her along and then abandoned her in the moment she had needed him most. “Doctor, you let him get away! You left me alone in this! Anything could have happened!”  
To her surprise the Doctor didn't reply and broke out into a run instead and Ruby had no other choice but to follow after him if she didn't want to remain in the creepy hall with the creepy machine all on her own. She was panting by the time they had reached the corridor, but the Doctor was always a few steps ahead of her. She really, really needed to exercise more often, but not tomorrow. Tomorrow she would probably cure her sore muscles after this insane day.  
They had barely made it out of the building when the Doctor came to an abrupt halt and Ruby almost crashed into his back before she could stop. In the heat of the moment she had almost shouted at him and asked him what the matter was when she heard it and Ruby lowered her gaze to the sorry figure kneeling in front of them. Haynes was crying.

“Grief is a terrible thing,” the Doctor said, his voice raspy and yet soft, and Ruby stepped a little closer to him. “But you are not the only person who ever lost someone. It's the story of everybody.”  
The scientist lowered his head deeper and his fingers were trying to find a way to bury themselves into the asphalt.  
“Get over it. Beat it,” the Doctor told him, “Break free.”  
When Haynes spoke his voice was nothing but a whisper, hardly audible to Ruby's ears.  
“I can't.”  
“I have grieved for so many people, for so many years that I have lost count. And if you let it, it will consume you and drive you deep into your worst nightmares until you think that the only way out is through revenge or a plot that will miraculously bring them back to you, even though you know how wrong it is,” he paused for a long moment, “I know because I've been there.”  
Ruby almost startled when the Doctor uttered a laugh, a devastatingly sad laugh. She swallowed the lump in her throat while Haynes quietly cried on, still on his knees.  
“I had forgotten, but I remember now. I tried to save Clara and I didn't care that I was destroying the universe in the process,” the Doctor spat angrily, “Someone had taken something from me and I wanted it back, no matter the cost. I was you, Haynes. Don't be like me, don't let the grief eat you up.”  
It took him a long moment, but eventually Ruby could hear Haynes' broken voice.  
“I can't do it on my own,” he croaked, “I've seen the war. I've seen what's coming. I can't.”  
“Yes,” the Doctor said and there was something of his usual vigour in his voice, “Yes, you can.”  
“How?” Haynes demanded to know, now raising his head to look at the Doctor. Ruby thought she had never seen a man look so stricken – until her gaze fell upon the Doctor himself. Whatever Haynes was going through right now, the Doctor had already lived it. Probably more than just once. In fact, somehow Ruby thought that his face looked as if he had gone through it for millions of years.  
“What did you do about it?” Haynes asked.  
“I listened to Clara in the end and you should do the same. Listen to your wife. Let her go,” the Doctor said gravely as if a part was still regretting having listened to her.  
Ruby couldn't say what made her do it, but at this moment she felt the distinct urge to hold the Doctor's hand. They had seen so much today, fought Romans, ran from a bombing squadron, travelled in his amazing space ship, they had saved London and right now it seemed as if he really needed a gesture of comfort – and so did she. Carefully Ruby reached for his hand and felt relieved when the Doctor squeezed hers in return.  
Then they both looked up and Ruby could see the figures approaching in the darkness. A handful of armed soldiers, led by Kate Stewart. It was over. They had done it. Ruby breathed a sigh of relief.

“Haynes,” Kate's voice said carefully once she had reached him, “Come with us. Please.”  
Ruby watched as Haynes rose to his feet and luckily he didn't protest while the soldiers handcuffed him before they led him away. Kate Stewart, however, remained with them.  
“I see you're back in charge,” the Doctor remarked.  
Kate gave an affirming nod. “Yes. Planes are gone, Haynes is caught. Everything's back to normal,” she paused and looked at the Doctor, a grateful smile on her face, “Once again, on behalf of the entire planet, thank you. We couldn't have done it without you.”  
“Oh, you're thanking the wrong person,” the Doctor nodded towards Ruby and she instantly took a step back. She had unplugged the machine, nothing more. She didn't really think that she deserved all the credit.  
“Well, if that is so, thank you, Ruby. You've saved London,” Kate said sincerely.  
But since they were thanking her and since she had helped, it would be rude to argue about it now.  
“What are you gonna do with him?” Ruby asked her, “With Haynes?”  
Kate blew the air out between her teeth and shrugged in response. “I'm not entirely sure yet. Can't say UNIT has been in this particular situation before.”  
Suddenly the Doctor stepped forward and his voice sounded weary when he spoke as if the entire ordeal had worn him out. “You could suggest erasing his memory.”  
“ _What?!_ ” Ruby barked at him. A part of her had hoped he was joking, but when she looked at his face the Doctor's expression was dead serious. “Why would you do that?”  
To her horror Kate didn't seem to mind his suggestion all too much because a moment later she nodded in reply.  
“You know,” she said towards the Doctor, “That's exactly what Clara was trying to avoid. What's gonna happen now.”  
He scoffed and Ruby watched him turn around and slowly walk away, back in the direction of the TARDIS. “She failed,” she heard him say before he was out of earshot.  
When he had turned around the corner, Ruby was faced with a decision: stay or go after him. And yet it wasn't a decision at all, but before she went she had one last question for Kate Stewart.  
“What was that all about?” she asked sharply.  
The woman sighed. “You should ask the Doctor.”  
Angrily Ruby crossed her arms in front of her chest. “He's not gonna tell me and you know it.”  
After another sigh Kate finally spoke. “He forgot about Clara, she erased his memory. And we were trying to help her keep it that way because she asked us to. She's out there and he's looking for her, but he can't find her.”  
“Don't you think that's up to the Doctor to decide?” A frown appeared on Ruby's face. If she had lost someone, Ruby wouldn't want her friends to conspire against her just because they thought they knew better.  
“I don't think it's your place to judge,” Kate replied harshly.  
“No, it's not,” she admitted, “But I'm entitled to my opinion.”  
Then, to Ruby's surprise, Kate Stewart started to smile. “I think you'll be good for him,” she said, “He's not happy when he's alone.”  
“I've told you before,” Ruby replied and suddenly there was a hint of sadness in her voice that she couldn't quite explain. There was no reason to be sad about it. “I'm not his companion. But I'll go and find him now.”  
She turned around on the spot and walked off, following after the Doctor and for some reason Ruby new exactly where she would find him – inside his space ship.


	12. Chapter 12

The Doctor was leaning against the door of his blue police box, turning the sonic sunglasses around in his hands as if he was contemplating something. He had waited for her there and Ruby approached him slowly just in case he needed a few more moments on his own. Then he looked up and granted her a soft smile. The sadness, however, hadn't left him. It was still there, surrounding him like a veil of grief.  
“There are you,” he said and pushed himself away from the box to stand upright. “Thought you had gotten lost.”  
“It was just around the corner,” she argued and came to a halt a few steps in front of him, “Besides. Blue box. Hard to miss.”  
The Doctor turned around to have a look at his space ship and smiled. “Yeah,” he agreed, “I suppose so.”  
Even in his sadness, or because of it, there was something calm about the Doctor at this moment, something stoic and once again it made her realize that it was over. There were no more planes in the sky, no more Jack the Ripper roaming the streets of modern London, Margaret Thatcher was probably back where she belonged and sleeping off her sedation and Haynes would be taken care of by UNIT. They were safe. Everything was how it should be. Ruby would spend the night in the TARDIS like the Doctor had promised her she could and then she would go off and never see him again. Maybe that was for the best.  
Then Ruby realized something else, something aside her burning legs and hurting feet that were in dire need of rest – her growling stomach.  
“Listen,” she said and tried to give the Doctor her best smile, “I'm hungry. I think we both really deserve some utterly unhealthy food. I could get us something to eat. What do you say?”  
To her relief the Doctor smiled back at her. “You should have eaten the chips I got us earlier,” he remarked.  
Ruby wrinkled her nose at him. “Yeah, except I was kind of still in shock over all the alien things I'd witnessed,” she replied, “I think there's a diner around the corner, I'll be back in a bit. So, anything for the Time Lord?”  
“Milkshake,” he said with a smile, “Biggest they have.”  
Ruby chuckled in response. “I'll be back in a bit.”

She turned around and headed down the street and around the corner. There was Haynes' warehouse to her right and to her left, further down the street, an old-fashioned American diner. Out of the corner of her eye Ruby had noticed it earlier and now she was heading right towards it, the idea of chips and milkshakes already making her mouth water.  
A little bell tolled above her head when she entered the diner that was empty except for the young waitress behind the counter. Ruby thought that the woman with her brown hair and large doe eyes seemed vaguely familiar, but at the sight of the delicious looking blueberry muffins on the counter she decided that she was hungry enough to order a little bit of everything.  
“Hello,” the waitress greeted her in a friendly manner, “What can I get you?”  
Ruby glanced at the menu board. “I'll have a large portion of fries, the hot and spicy chicken wings and two blueberry muffins to go, please. Oh, and two large milkshakes.”  
The waitress smiled back at her. “I could make that extra large milkshakes if you like,” she replied, “You look like you've just had one of those extra large milkshake days.”  
Ruby laughed as she sat down on one of the bar stools. “Like you wouldn't believe.”  
“Oh, I don't know,” she said with a light shrug, “I can believe a lot of things. Your food will be ready in a minute.”  
The waitress vanished through a door into the back of the diner, presumably the kitchen, and when it slammed shut Ruby was left staring at the painting of Elvis that was on the back of the door. Wasn't it strange to put up a fancy diner like this one in between warehouses?  
“No,” Ruby whispered to herself, “Nothing strange going on here.”  
Today's adventure was the first and last of its kind and tomorrow Ruby would step outside the Doctor's TARDIS, hopefully well rested, and go back to her normal, boring life. Maybe she would really go to visit her parents for a while or maybe she would even go back to Sarah and apologize for her behaviour. She would make up her mind over night.  
Then the back door swung open and the waitress returned with two large paper bags filled with food and two large cups. With a smile she handed them over to Ruby.  
“Wow, that was quick,” Ruby commented, “I should come here more often. You really put the _fast_ in fast food, don't you?”  
“I'm sorry, but we're closing down tomorrow. Today's the last day,” she explained to her, “We're a chain though. All over the world. You might see another one.”  
“Alright,” Ruby replied and smiled at the waitress in an attempt to cheer her up over closing the diner – yet for some reason she didn't even seem sad. “What do I owe you?”  
“Nothing,” she made a dismissive hand gesture, “It's on the house. Like I said, last day.”  
Once again Ruby thought that the woman seemed faintly familiar, but it was close to midnight by now and she had had a tiring day to the point that she was even too exhausted to think about it further. “Thank you,” she said instead before she turned around and left the diner. 

Back in the TARDIS the Doctor and Ruby settled upstairs on the armchairs that were more than comfortable, the food spread across a small coffee table between them. The Doctor was slurping his milkshake while Ruby stuffed a handful of chips into her mouth. For the longest time neither of them spoke.  
“You can stay here for the night,” the Doctor said after a while, “Like I promised.”  
“Thanks,” Ruby replied gratefully, “I really appreciate it. I have nowhere else to go.”  
“No parents?” he asked while he snagged a chicken wing out of the box.  
“No, I have parents,” she said.  
“But you've fallen out?”  
Ruby shook her head. “Nothing like that. But they live outside the city and I left a while ago. Kind of wanted to find my own way.”  
“Understandable,” the Doctor remarked, stealing another chicken wing that she had bought only for him, “Even natural.”  
He took a deep breath and Ruby watched him set his milkshake aside before he went on. “I have to thank you, Ruby,” he sighed wearily, “You saved London. You acted when I couldn't. You're an incredible, young woman and I'll keep my promise. You can stay for the night, but you can't travel with me.”  
The Doctor looked up at her and Ruby suddenly felt small under his gaze despite the fact that he had just paid her a compliment, which probably meant a lot, given that he was a 2000 year old alien.  
“I can't keep putting people in danger just because I don't want to be alone and, trust me, it would be dangerous.”  
Ruby nodded in reply. “I get it,” she said, “And, to be honest, I'm not sure I would want to travel with you. First of all, you're a nutter.”  
The Doctor uttered a soft laugh.  
“Second, you're right. When I left my flat tonight all I wanted was an adventure, but I'm not sure I want that kind of adventure. It's a lot to take in, a lot of responsibility. I mean, we saved the city, but what if we had failed?”  
He shrugged. “I suppose UNIT would have found him eventually. Kate is very stubborn.”  
“Yeah, I suppose so.”  
Ruby watched the Doctor reach for the milkshake once more to have a sip and she realized that it would be now or never. If he didn't answer now, he would never answer the question.  
“Who was she? The woman? Clara?” Ruby wanted to know.  
The Doctor exhaled sharply, staring off into the distance. It took him a very long moment to reply and by the time he opened his mouth, Ruby had already thought he would just ignore the question. “She was my friend. No, she was more, she was so much more than just that. And I lost her. I lost her so many times I forgot that one day we would have to part for good.”  
“Kate said she erased your memory,” she remarked.  
The Doctor nodded gravely. “She did. She had to. But I'm stubborn, too. I didn't let it rest. I searched for her, I put the pieces of the puzzle back together and when I saw her the last piece fell back into place,” he hesitated, his gaze lost somewhere in the room. “Now I think I was better off not remembering.”  
The Doctor cleared his throat and suddenly his whole posture seemed to have changed when he rose from his seat. His gaze shifted back to the table and he nodded toward the milkshake.  
“How did you know strawberry was my favourite?” he asked.  
Ruby was a little taken aback by his question and the sudden change of topic. He was acting as if the previous conversation had never happened at all.  
“Uhm,” she spluttered, “I didn't. I just said milkshake. The waitress picked it.”  
A small frown appeared on the Doctor's face. “Waitress?”  
Ruby followed his example and rose from her seat. “Can we discuss that tomorrow?” she asked under a yawn, “All I really want right now is a bed.”  
“Sure,” the Doctor nodded and pointed towards the corridor, “It's down the corridor, to the left and then the first four doors on the right.”  
Sleepily Ruby staggered off the vague direction the Doctor had pointed in. “I hope I won't have forgotten that by the time I reach it. Night!”  
“Good night.”


	13. Chapter 13

Ruby woke up to the sight of stars. She had been too tired to notice them when she had gone to sleep, but as she woke up and turned her head towards the ceiling, all she could see through the glass roof was stars. Even though Ruby knew that it would be nothing more than a projection because according to her watch it was 9 AM, it was still a beautiful thing to look at. The Doctor's entire ship was beautiful from the old-fashioned leather chairs to the console unit. Every single bedroom she had checked out was beautiful, but for some reason this one had appealed to her the most. A part of her almost regretted that she couldn't stay here for longer because she still hadn't made up her mind about what she was going to do next.  
Ruby threw the duvet aside and walked into the adjoining bathroom. It had everything she could possibly need: toothbrush, toothpaste, shower gel, even hair spray. The TARDIS was better than any hotel she had ever stayed at. It really was a shame that she couldn't stay.

Once she had had a shower and changed her clothes, Ruby packed her things into her small backpack and headed out onto the corridor where she started to hear a strange sound. It was almost as if. . .  
Ruby stuck her head around the corner and her suspicion was soon confirmed. The Doctor sat on the stairs and during the night he had swapped his burgundy velvet coat for the attire of a homeless person: plaid trousers, an old, faded t-shirt and a hoodie with holes in it. And he also had a guitar propped up on his lap that he was playing at a really loud volume. Thank God the TARDIS walls were apparently soundproof because otherwise she would have been woken up in a really nasty way.  
“Do Time Lords usually have a midlife crisis around the age of 2000?” she shouted at him over the sound of the music. What was that? Black Sabbath?  
The music ceased and the Doctor raised his head to look at her. A smile spread across his face when he saw her and he immediately jumped into a standing position. “Oh, good. You're up. I've got a surprise for you.”  
“I hate surprises,” she remarked, frowning at the Doctor while he set his guitar aside, propping it up carefully on the nearest chair.  
“No one hates surprises,” he said and turned around to look at her, “Did you sleep well?”  
“Very well,” Ruby confirmed with a smile, “Your ship is the best hotel I've ever been to. Five stars.”  
The TARDIS gurgled in response and Ruby looked up at the console unit.  
“No offence.”  
The Doctor buried his hands deep into his trouser pocket and there was a sort of expectant look on his face as if he was waiting for Ruby to do or say something. She knew she should thank him, but saying thank you would be the beginning of a goodbye and Ruby wasn't quite ready for it yet. She knew she had to leave, but she didn't want to leave right now. Not yet. Not so soon. Once she had stepped out of that box the Doctor would fly off and Ruby would never see him again. The nutter. The weird alien. She liked him despite all of that.  
“So, uhm,” she paused, “Thanks for letting me crash here.”  
The Doctor smiled in response. “My pleasure. After all, I've got all those unused rooms.”  
“You could take turns,” she suggested with a laugh, “Sleep in a different room every night.”  
“Ah, I don't sleep that much,” he replied, “Usually I just nod off in my chair for a nap. Or even standing up when a pudding brain is talking.”  
Ruby giggled. “You're crazy,” she said, “I like that.”  
Without thinking about it any further Ruby stepped forward and flung her arms around the Doctor's neck in a tight hug. He stiffened up under her touch, but a moment later she felt his hands around her back as well.  
“Thank you,” she repeated in earnest before she released him from the embrace.  
The Doctor frowned at her. “I believe you've already said that.”  
“Not just for the bed,” Ruby smiled sincerely, “Yesterday was the craziest day of my life and I'll never forget that. I've learned that aliens exist, that time travel is possible, I've seen Jack the Ripper and Margaret Thatcher and Romans. That is more than most people can say about themselves. Thank you for bringing me along.”  
“Thank you for coming along.”  
Ruby sighed as she looked at him. She had to go even though from now on a part of her would always wonder what the strange man in the blue box was up to at the moment.  
“Will I ever see you again?” she asked him.  
The Doctor responded with a frown. “Are you saying goodbye?”  
“Well, yeah.”  
“Ah, Ruby Smith,” he chuckled, “Don't say goodbye. You make it sound so final.”  
“Okay,” he breathed in confusion. What was he on about? Ruby thought she might never find out. “See you later?”  
The Doctor smiled and nodded. It was now or never.

Ruby held on tight to her backpack while she turned around and headed towards the door. She couldn't stay. She wasn't even sure she wanted to stay and the Doctor had also said that she couldn't travel with him. It was a goodbye, whether he wanted to admit that or not.  
Ruby reached for the door handle of the TARDIS and pulled right before the breath got caught in her lungs at the sight in front of her.  
It wasn't 9 AM. It wasn't the street. Not London. Outside the TARDIS, right in front of her eyes, was nothing. Nothing but the infinity of space.  
“I did mention a surprise,” the Doctor remarked from behind her.  
Ruby took a deep breath, trying to wrap her head around the fact that she was in a police box. Floating. In space. She was actually in space. Ruby swallowed hard.  
“Surprise abduction more like it,” she mumbled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so, so, so much for giving this story a go and for every kudos and comment! I know that most people don't want to read a sci-fi fanfiction to a sci-fi show, especially when it features an original character, but thank you for still giving it a read! I'm so glad you've enjoyed it because this is one of the fanfics I'm really, really proud of. Thank you!!!
> 
> Also, the Doctor and Ruby will soon-ish be back in the next story **Nemesis** : The Doctor and Ruby find themselves stranded on an abandoned spaceship and in the company of space pirates. With the TARDIS refusing to leave and all other exit strategies failing they need to figure out who sent the ship on this course to fly straight into a black hole and what cargo it holds that the creators thought too dangerous to ever escape or fall into the hands of other people.


End file.
